Early in the stage Greg Van Avermaet and Roger Kluge broke away. Due to the control of the sprinter teams, the two did not come close to winning the stage. The peloton raced at high speed towards the long finish line in Châteauroux. Van Aert tried to sprint for the win, but was caught at 200 metres from the finish. Mark Cavendish took his second win of the day in the bunch sprint.

“I couldn’t get the most out of it”, Van Aert said. “I wasn’t positioned well enough at the end. I lost contact with Mike. At 200 meters from the line I had to brake hard. It was the first time this Tour that I wanted to get involved in the bunch sprint. I hope to do that more often this Tour. I prefer to chase a few stage victories in the coming weeks. The somewhat tougher stages suit me better than the pure sprint stages. Normally, tomorrow’s stage is one for the attackers. However, I think some of the sprinter teams will do everything they can to make it a sprint with a reduced peloton. Maybe there will be another chance for me.”

The Belgian says he feels good on the bike. In the coming days he hopes to creep up to his top form. “There is still a small margin between my current form and the form in which I can achieve stage victories. I will continue to chase my top form in the coming days. I feel I am not far from it. Fortunately, Primoz was able to save energy today and recover a bit from his injuries. There are a number of tough stages ahead.
Due to the way he rode the time trial yesterday, I am confident that we can still show beautiful things with him”, Van Aert concluded.