A seemingly innocuous stage with the peloton tra-la-la-ing along in anticipation of a sprint finish turned to chaos in the last 20km. A crash that should not have happened followed by a change of wind direction saw the bunch shatter into pieces and many GC riders in panic stations. Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) kicked early and held his speed in the reduced bunch sprint, edging out LottoNL-Jumbo’s Danny van Poppel with a fast finishing Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) zooming from nowhere to claim third. Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) made the first group on the road and stays in the red jersey. His team mate Thibaut Pinot and Sunweb’s Wilco Kelderman were not so lucky, coming in almost two minutes behind.
