Quite the same story as the last stage. Quickstep, Lotto-Soudal and Sunweb were the teams who chased down the four man break. In fact, they were caught with more than 20 km still to go! Dimension Data set up and executed a superb leadout for Cavendish, who repaid their faith by taking the stage win. Quickstep also put Kittel into an excellent position via their own leadout, and the German took 2nd. Michael Matthews finished 3rd on the stage.

De Groot did a lot of work at the front of the peloton in chasing the break. An uneventful stage for our neo-pros otherwise, and all three of them finished with the pack.

Crashes dominated the early part of the stage, with a total of five reported by race radio. Bouhanni, Groenewegen, Wippert, Modolo, Rui Costa and Cavendish were among the big names involved in crashes. Schultz was caught with 63 km to go and Novak was caught 10 km later. The rest of the break was caught with 10 left, with BMC taking control at the front. The lead group was down to 13 riders with 3 km to go. Poels and Fuglsang attacked half a kilometer later, with Mollema, Spilak, Pozzovivo, Van Avermaet and Matthews in the chase group. Mollema and MAtthews were then dropped.

Poels got away as they reached the kilometer banner. Fuglsang was cuaght bu Spilak and Van Avermaet, who had shed Pozzovivo in the meantime. Poels did tire before the line but had a big enough gap to hold it and win the stage. Spilak accelerated into 2nd, with Van Avermaet 3rd.

The neo-pros stayed with the pack till about 10 km to go, but were then dropped as they reached the climb to the finish. They all lost a lot of time, but encouragingly none were among the back-markers.

Scully crashed from the break, but he did recover and make it through the stage. By the time the peloton picked up the pace, they were too far behind the break and could not catch them in time. Pedersen and Campenaerts attacked and got a gap to the others in the break. They were not caught again and decided the stage in a sprint. Pedersen came out on top with Campenaerts finishing 2nd and Smukulis 3rd. The sprinters caught up to the break barring Pedersen on the line.

Levi De Groot makes a bunch of new records with his 8th place finish on this stage. He becomes the highest ever finishing neo-pro and the first to get a Top 10 result. He also becomes the first to join and hang on to a successful breakaway. He picks up 3 points as a reward for his efforts. Both Al-Amin and Nettkle lost time on the stage. None had a memorable race as far as the GC is concerned but one rider will surely remember this stage for a long time.

A lot of crashes plagued the peloton early on a rain affected day. Two retirements resulted as a consequence of those crashes.

The lead group was down to just 45 riders with 115 km still to go. Cannondale were doing a lot of work at the front for Vanmarcke. The break plit up with 55 km left, with Docker, Golas, Lindeman, Thurau and Haas left in the leading group. Two more riders were dropped from the break with 37 km to go, with everyone else caught by the peloton in the meantime.

A lot of action took place around the 25 km mark, with the last breakaway riders caught, Lampaert and Theuns crashing and the trio of Hayman, Moscon and Durbridge being dropped from the front group.

Boonen attacked with 19 km to go and the resulting acceleration from the pack dropped seven more riders. They did make it back to the pack after the final cobbles section, leaving 21 riders in the front group.

Degenkolb attacked with 12 km left, and he was followed only by Sagan, Vanmarcke and Boonen. They were joined by Stannard and Boonen 4 km later and then by the rest of the group.

Vanmarcke attacked with 5 km to go and was swiftly followed by Boonen, Degenkolb, Naesen, Sagan, Stannard and Benoot. Incredibly, Vaugrenard was still in the chase group, after having slogged it out in the break!

Degenkolb attacked again with 3 km left. Boonen and Vanmarcke, did so too, dropping the others in their group but could not catch Degenkolb. Degenkolb won, with Boonen dropping Vanmarcke in the closing stages to take 2nd. Vanmarcke finished 3rd.

A good debut for Van Aerle as he joined the break and managed to finish inside the Top 100. Campagna's luck continues to desert him as another crash forced him to retire once again! Forsberg did a lot of work in the pack to chase the break and help his team leader Vanmarcke. The others had a quiet outing.

The early kilometers were quiet with the break allowed to get away without too much hassle. A crash involving six riders led to two retirements. The others involved could not return to the peloton even with 140 km still left at the time.

Two riders were dropped from the break with 30 km to go. 10 km later, the peloton was down to 76 riders, and 1'35" behind the break. The break were caught with 10 km to go.

Seven riders attacked almost immediately after, led by Valverde. The others who got a gap to the peloton were Alaphilippe, Chaves, Sergio Henao, Gerrans, Rui Costa and Barguil. Barguil could not hang on very long and was dropped a couple of kilometers later. The other six remained together till the Flamme Rouge, when an acceleration by Alaphilippe distanced Valverde and Chaves.

Alaphilippe kept his momentum and small gap going all through the final kilometer and took the win. Gerrans won the sprint among the three chasing, with Rui Costa finishing 3rd. The top six were eventually given the same time.

A torrid day for our neo-pros! Fernandez Hernandez, Thorson adn Campagna (again were involved in the day's first crash, which even led to two retirements. One of those retirements was Garcia Cerravalos. Everyone did finish the race, but the result just goes to show how brutal of a race this is and why it is becoming so prestigious in the peloton.

A surprise victory for Herrada against stronger opposition in the Prologue, with the inclines coming into play more than expected. Spilak and Kwiatkowski were the winners in the GC battle.

Time Trailing is not a forte any of our neo-pros have developed yet, with Levente the only one finishing with less than a minute's deficit in this Prologue.