Roglic was well placed at the front in the final. As a result, the Slovenian was able to take two bonification seconds on the first climb of the Mûr-de-Bretagne.

Sepp Kuss looked back on the vicious finale: “It was tough, the first time uphill. After the first climb I saw that the group had thinned out a lot, so I could position myself better. On such a short climb, a good position is crucial. As you can see, every second counts. You saw that everyone was working on that today. That is what races, and also the Tour, are decided on. It is important to be there at those important moments. It would be a tough final and we knew in advance that we had to be up front.”

In the final kilometre, Roglic had to acknowledge his superiority to Van der Poel. The Team Jumbo-Visma leader sprinted with Pogacar for the last bonification seconds and finished third. “It was a good situation for us. Of course we also wanted to fight for the stage win, but in the end we were more focused on the direct competitors for the general classification. You could see that Primoz and Tadej are well matched”, Kuss said.