The stage following the rest day looked on paper like the easiest of the second week, but most riders will have had a different opinion afterward. With an average speed of over 48 kilometers per hour, the peloton kept a relentless pace.

Van Aert was active early, trying to join the break of the day. It didn’t come easily, but after several attempts, he managed to slip into a chase group. However, together with his four companions, Van Aert was already forced into pursuit mode, as another group of five had broken clear earlier.

The gap between the two groups hovered between 20 and 30 seconds. On the Côte de Pech David, the key climb of the day, the two groups almost came together, but by then Abrahamsen and Mauro Schmidt had already gone clear. Van Aert and the others couldn’t reel in the unleashed duo. In the end, the Belgian from Team Visma | Lease a Bike sprinted to fifth place.

On that same Côte de Pech David, Vingegaard briefly tested his legs. The Dane danced on the pedals near the top of the sharp climb but quickly saw that his rivals were able to follow. On the following straight section, there was a sudden scare: Tadej Pogacar crashed after clipping another rider’s wheel. Several teams, including Visma | Lease a Bike, hit the brakes in the reduced peloton to allow the unlucky Slovenian to return.

“It was a hard stage today”, admitted Van Aert. “It wasn’t easy to make it into the break. I succeeded in the end, but I had already spent a lot of energy before that. I think that cost me in the finale. Mathieu van der Poel was also there, and I felt he had something left toward the end. We were watching each other, but I just couldn’t follow when he pushed on the last climb. Maybe if I had, we could have bridged to the leaders – although we had already tried and failed to do that in the kilometers before the climb.”

Van Aert feels his form is on the rise. “I’m here to get results. Thankfully, things are improving every day. Of course, I hope to turn that upward trend into a victory. In the Tour de France, you always want to achieve something big”, Van Aert concluded.