The weather conditions were also a factor today, with strong winds and heavy rain at the start of the stage. Four riders broke away, and by the end, three were fighting for the stage win. Bais was the first to cross the line on the steep final kilometre.

A few minutes behind, the favourites in the peloton kept each other in check. Despite the steep gradients in the final kilometres, the favourites only picked up the pace in the last few hundred metres. Remco Evenepoel sprinted to fourth place with Roglic on his wheel. The pair led a group of around 30 riders.

"The conditions made it almost impossible to do anything”, Roglic said after the finish. "But the legs felt good. That's a good sign. The wind picked up quite a bit, so it was not wise to attack from a big group. My teammates surrounded me well today and did a good job.”

Sports director Arthur van Dongen agreed that the stage was uneventful. "We were expecting a bigger group at the start. That was fine for us. There was a lot of headwind. As a result, nobody wanted to show what they were capable of. The favourites knew what to expect over the next two weeks, so they didn't want to waste too much energy. We look forward to the coming weeks with confidence, not least because Primoz made another solid impression today. The other riders also did well. Tomorrow we have another difficult stage on the programme, a stage we know from Tirreno-Adriatico”, Van Dongen said, referring to the so-called wall stage.