In the shortest stage in line of this Giro d’Italia, a leading group of five riders rode ahead quickly. In the early stages of the stage, road captain Paul Martens controlled the race. Partly due to the work of the German rider, the breakaway of the day did not get much more than a three-minute lead.

After a few other teams took control, the pace skyrocketed towards the fourth category climb. At about fifty kilometres from the line, Dekker and Groenewegen had to drop out. The Dutch sprinters were unable to catch the depleted peloton for the remainder of the stage.

In the final phase Jos van Emden tried to get away from the peloton. Due to the high speed, the time trialist was unable to get away. Peter Sagan won the stage. Van Emden, George Bennett, Koen Bouwman and Tobias Foss finished in the same time as the day’s winner

Sports director Arthur van Dongen spoke of a missed opportunity. “We had predicted several scenarios. We had also taken this scenario into account. Unfortunately, this is the doomsday scenario that eventually happens. Until the hill zone everything went well. Then Bora accelerated and Dylan had to let go. We then tried to survive the climb with David, but unfortunately he couldn’t keep up with the pace either. The course today was very treacherous. It’s a missed opportunity, but we did everything we could as a team to keep our sprinters in the peloton and in position. Other than that, all our riders are fine. After ten days of racing everyone will be happy with the first rest day. Then we can start the remaining week and a half with fresh courage.”