In the final of the rain-soaked queen stage, the difficult Montée de Niklosbierg had to be conquered three times. Healy attacked on the second passage, forcing the Jumbo-Visma team to chase. Ryan initially tested the competition with some fierce accelerations before making some real attacks on the final lap. The 21-year-old Irishman could not escape due to EF’s efforts but fought to sixth place on the wet cobbles. Tiesj Benoot finished tenth.

"We wanted to go for the win today”, sports director Maarten Wynants said. "Tiesj was our man to do it, but he didn't feel as good as we'd hoped. We were also up against an incredibly strong Healy. Luckily, Archie rode a good race. He managed to get away with the best climbers on the steepest parts. That's an excellent performance from such a young rider.”

Wynants was hopeful that the peloton could still get back to the front. "Archie's chances of closing the gap were very slim. The climb was followed by a valley where the breakaway rider was basically at a disadvantage. So, it seemed important to use our strengths across the board. But today, it was a different scenario. Sam Oomen and Koen Bouwman returned strongly to help, but sixth place was the maximum we could achieve.”