Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard showed their resilience after the cobblestone stage. The duo finished in the top ten of the day's classification.

Van Aert was the initiator of several breakaway attempts. After seventy kilometres, one of his many efforts resulted in success. Two other riders joined the Belgian and in no time the trio built up a four-minute lead. At the intermediate sprint, Van Aert took the maximum number of points and consolidated his leading position in the points classification.

Several teams in the peloton increased the pace and the leaders' lead slowly but surely diminished. Ten kilometres from the finish, the peloton caught Van Aert, who by then was riding solo. After four days in the yellow jersey, the Belgian could exchange it for the green jersey.

When Van Aert was caught, Tiesj Benoot positioned himself at the front of the bunch to work for leaders Roglic and Vingegaard. A depleted peloton sprinted for the win on the final slope, with Vingegaard and Roglic finishing seventh and ninth, respectively, behind stage winner Tadej Pogacar.

After finishing the stage, Van Aert explained his plans. "I wanted to be in a big breakaway. That way, we wouldn’t have to waste too much energy in the chase. Right from the start, I took the initiative. A lot of teams had the same idea. Unfortunately, we only got away with three. Because I had already used up all my energy at that point, I decided to push on. I did my best and said goodbye to the yellow jersey in style. I enjoyed today's stage and I hope the fans did too. It was a nice way to end my time in yellow. It's not bad at all to be wearing the green jersey now."

Vingegaard was already looking ahead to the mountains. Tomorrow the peloton will finish on an uphill slope for the first time. The current number three in the general classification expected that there will be new opportunities for his team. "I think we have one of the strongest teams for that terrain, which will enable Steven Kruijswijk and Sepp Kuss to show their exceptional qualities. Long climbs suit me better than steep and explosive finishes like today. Supported by our strong team, I believe we can show some great things in the upcoming stages”, Vingegaard concluded.