Leader Primoz Roglic was attentively racing near the front all day. On the final climb and in the valley to the finish, the Slovenian was assisted by Lennard Hofstede and Jonas Vingegaard. Roglic remained fourth in the GC and retained the green points jersey.

“It was a very tough and crazy stage”, Kuss said. “It turned out much different than we expected. There was lots of jumping and the cooperation was not always good due to the large size of the group. All in all, it was a good situation for us with two riders in the front. There was a lot of headwind. For lightweights like George and myself it is very difficult to win the stage in such circumstances. On the other hand, George is getting closer in the overall standings which is good with regard to the upcoming mountain stages. With two guys high in the standings you have several options and cards to play.”

For Roglic it was a good day. “The pace was very high from the start. The wind certainly played a big role. It was nice to see how offensive we have raced as a team today. It was a great start to the week for us. We didn’t win the stage, but GC-wise we have done well with George. Hopefully we can continue this way of racing into the next days.”