The peloton set off in Pinerolo for the final kilometres on Italian soil in this Tour de France. In the short but tough stage, the riders climbed three categorised ascents, with the Col du Galibier as the highlight. A breakaway of 17 was never given much breathing space by the teams with classification ambitions in the peloton. The last escapees were caught at the foot of the 22-kilometre Col du Galibier.

On that Col du Galibier, UAE Team Emirates upped the pace. As a result, yellow jersey wearer Richard Carapaz got dropped at the front early on. Vingegaard was part of a small group of favourites. Just before the top, Pogacar attacked. Vingegaard reached the top ten seconds behind the Slovenian. In the risky descent, Pogacar systematically extended his lead. Vingegaard finished in Valloire together with Remco Evenepoel, Juan Ayuso, Primoz Roglic and Carlos Rodriguez, more than half a minute behind Pogacar. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader moves up to third place in the general classification.

"The 50 seconds behind Pogacar in the general classification are playable”, Vingegaard responded afterwards. "It's never nice to lose time, but to be honest I expected bigger time differences after four stages. Today I lost most of my time in the second part of the descent. I was ten seconds behind for some time, but on the long straights he was able to gain seconds. We know what we are doing. We believe in our plan."

"We knew this scenario was possible”, sports director Grischa Niermann added. "We also expected Jonas to lose some time in the first stages. He rode a very good climb of the Galibier, but unfortunately he had to leave a small gap just before the top. Pogacar was the better rider today. We are convinced that Jonas is going to grow in this Tour."