The first racing hour was again fiercely contested by the attackers. Eventually three riders managed to get in the breakaway of the day. The sprinters teams then took control towards Carcassonne, with Team Jumbo-Visma also present in the front of the bunch. Despite several new attack attempts and a big crash, that image hardly changed.

Because of the danger of echelons, the pace went up in the final, but Team Jumbo-Visma didn’t let up. In the sprint, Van Aert saw Mark Cavendish take his fourth stage victory in the distance.

“It was a stressful day”, the national champion of Belgium said. “The goal was to keep Jonas well in front and ride a sprint myself. I had hoped for some more action, but the wind was not strong enough for that. At two to three kilometres from the end Mike and I were a bit outmatched and at five hundred metres from the finish I got boxed in again. It just wasn’t good enough today, unfortunately. And I can only respect what Cavendish did.”

Sports director Grischa Niermann was relieved. “We came through the day well. It’s a shame that Wout got caught up, because we would have liked to ride the sprint with him. The Tour is and remains super hectic. You saw that again today with the crashes and the chance of echelons. Tomorrow a breakaway group will have a good chance, even though it will be a tough stage again. And who knows, maybe the GC riders will get involved as well.”