The peloton timed the chase to perfection, catching the break with 3 km to go. There was a crash involving 9 riders with 15 km to go, which led to one retirement. Debusschere won his second stage of the race.

Forsberg and De Groot did a lot of work chasing down the break for their teams in the peloton. Forsberg's 44th place finish is the highest stage finish by any neo-pro so far. Only Tornello lost time on this stage, while all others finished in the peloton.

The peloton cruised to the line allowing the day's 13 man break to take the spoils. Boem attacked and dropped his breakaway companions with 2 km to go and soloed to victory on the stage.

Team Sky pick up their second consecutive GC win.

Forsberg's efforts on the last stage caught up to him as he couldn't keep pace with the peloton. De Groot matched the former's 44th place finish on the last stage, here. Thomas Hinault secured the highest placing by one of our neo-pros in the GC, 127th.

After a string of early attacks which were chased down by the peloton, three riders formed the break of day. The pack allowed the break to get a sizable lead before the chase started in full vigour. Kuroeda was dropped from the break with 19 km to go. Belkov attacked and dropped Malori just a kilometer later. The latter was caught with 13 km left. Belkov held a 30" lead with just 5 km to go, but was reeled in just 1.5 km from the line! Sam Bennett was the strongest in the sprint and continued Bora's great start to the season.

Daniel Clark was among the riders who tried to get into the break early on but was pulled back in. Both him and Campagna were dropped from the peloton with 25 km to go. Garcia Cerravalos and Thorson were dropped too, at around the 10 km to go mark.

The breakaway was allowed to get away early but it was an early trip to the broom wagon for one of the five men, as Campagna crashed out with just 25 km raced. The teams shared the pace-making in the pack, with the difficult terrain causing a split with 60 km to go. The peloton was down to 65 riders. Some of those dropped did make their way back but another split with 35 km left dwindled the numbers further. Paredes was dropped from the break and caught with 25 km to go. The same fate fell on Taciak exactly 10 km later. Rowe and Naesen attacked from the apck with 13 km left, with the two man break still holding on to a 40 second lead. Both attackers were caught inside the last kilometer. De Marchi, who'd been dropped by Laengen, was swallowed up by the pack just 500 meters from the line. Laengen survived and won the first ever running of this race. Navardauskas beat out Trentin for the remaining podium places.

It went from elation to despair quite quickly for Campagna as he crashed out early. The other neo-pros had a hard days outing, with the terrain making it hard for them to stay in touch.

The breakaway formed after the first intermediate sprint and held. There was a pack split after a huge crash with 19 riders involved! Bak and Vermote retired as a result of the injuries picked up from the fall. The peloton eventually did come back together. However, it was a tough day in the peloton for many riders as another split 30 km from the finish dropped around 65 riders permanently. Van Schip was the lone survivor from the break beyond the 15 km to go mark, and he too was caught with 7 km left. The peloton was down to just 65 riders at this point. In the sprint finish, Wippert received a fantastic leadout from Phinney, but he went too early and tired out before the line. Blythe took the win ahead of Swift and Theuns.

A good day's ride for Abdessabour in the break, and he even picked up a couple of points in the intermediate sprints. Forsberg and Campagna stayed in the pack, and none of the three could stay with the peloton at the finish.

The breakaway started getting caught from before the KOM point with Samoilau the last survivor. Once again, it was an early sprint by Bozic that distanced the peloton, but unlike Wippert on the previous stage, Bozic hung on to take the stage win. Blythe and Waeytens make up the other podium positions.

A pleasant day for our neo-pros as all three finished in the pack. Forsberg becomes the first neo-pros to win any kind of sprint after winning the first intermediate sprint on this stage.

A quiet stage in general but it was made exciting by the fact that the peloton nearly left it too late to catch the break. The latter's lead was still 1'20" going into the final 10 km. However, they were caught with 3 km to go. Colbrelli was the fastest in the sprint.