The second stage took the peloton from Épône to Montargis for a 187-kilometer ride. Immediately after the start, three riders broke away. The trio gained a maximum lead of two and a half minutes, but that was not enough to surprise the peloton. With fifty kilometers to go, everything came back together and the pace slowed down.

Daan Hoole then opted for a solo attack. The Dutchman forced the sprinter teams to dig deep to catch him. They succeeded in the final kilometre, after which Kanter proved to be the fastest in the bunch sprint. The riders of Team Visma | Lease a Bike reached the finish line without any problems.

"It was a good day. We got through the stage well and were able to save energy for tomorrow", sports director Marc Reef said. "There were a number of crashes, but we were never involved. We had made the decision to stay at the back to save energy, and in hindsight that proved to be the right choice. Now we are focusing on tomorrow's team time trial. That will be an important day."