The first mountain stage sees a day of heavy climbing, although the final climb is not the longest climb of the race, heading up La Planche des Belle Filles.
11 riders went on the attack early on, while Strava and Vesuvio seemed surprisingly keen to chase them down. 5 failed to make the cut and dropped back to the peloton: Altur, La Lavandier (of the Bouygues variety), Ludvigsson and Smit.
This left a group of 6, with the standout rider being Kolar. With him were Hoelgaard, Egger, Robov, Bravo and Tanovitchii.
They would ride together early on in the climbs, but the attacks for KoM points split apart the group. In almost every case, the result was Kolar in first, Hoelgaard just about staying with him, Egger in 3rd, and the others further back.
They would regroup, and repeat the process on the next climb. Meanwhile Jacobsen attacked the peloton on the 2nd climb to set off on a long solo ride, given that the break were already 5 minutes clear.
Villalobos was involved in not one, but two crashes during the stage. The biggest name he took with him was Grosu, but also down were Grosu's leadout Räim, plus Le Gac, Lee, Khalifa and Schwarmes - with the Vesuvio rider forced to abandon the race.
With around 55km to go, a group of 6 launched their mid-stage move from the pack. Lehtinen, Eyob, Schir, Rivera, Uwizeyimana and Mohoric.
They survived for some time, being joined by Lutsenko inside the final 30km in the run in to the penultimate climbs of the day. But then the group sat up.
Onto that climb, and Borisavljevic continued the aggressive racing, which tempted reactions from Ndayisenga, Uwizeyimana, Olivier, Potocki, Lutsenko and Dzhus - although nobody was really willing to commit fully just yet.
That all changed when Morton attacked. Going straight past Lutsenko, Dzhus and Ndayisenga who had a little gap, then up to the remaining breakaway duo of Kolar and Hoelgaard.
The Aussie would then take the summit of the climb alone, with Shikai chasing after him some 30 seconds later.
Kolar and Hoelgaard held on for the next positions. They scored 62 and 50 points respectively today, with the Slovakian now taking on the lead in that competition.
Next though was Ndayisenga at 1'28.
Olivier leads the following group of 5, having done a few little attacks on the climb but no big move. Lecuisinier has done nothing but follow wheels and is with him, as are Lutsenko, Dzhus and Ikibe.
That group swells in numbers as others catch up, and now going downhill Lecuisinier finally attacks. The problem is that he is now 2 minutes behind Morton.
Onto the final climb goes Morton. Oz and Meiji have been regular rivals in their MG history and that continues now with Shikai chasing at 30 seconds.
Lecuisinier is at 1'30, while Olivier also got away alone and is at 2 minutes.
Next on the road, at about 2'45, Cort Nielsen and Ikibe are riding away from their group.
In that group are: Dzhus, Lutsenko, Ndayisenga, La Lavandier, Carapaz, Vasyliv, Herklotz and Potocki. Currently about 3 minutes behind Morton.
Kolar is at about 4 minutes, joined by Haig, and chased by Heymes.
The next group is just over 5 minutes back and includes race leader McCarthy, with Pereyra, Dieteren, Bablidze, La Lavandier, Formolo, Mohoric, Hoelgaard and Borisavljevic.
Completely missing from all action are two of the top climbers in the field: Galta and Kudus. Finally they make their move from the peloton, but only with 5km to go. Meanwhile Morton is 2km and about 6 and a half minutes ahead of them.
Another disappointment, Kung, shortly follows them in making a late move.
Back to the front, and the competing time trials of the 4 solo climbers. Morton is looking good, he can no longer see Shikai when he looks over his shoulder.
That's because Shikai is now 1 minute down, and has been caught by Lecuisinier.
Olivier is doing what he can, but is now 2'20 behind - and losing ground on all of his podium rivals. Ikibe and Cort Nielsen are at 3'10, meanwhile Carapaz and La Lavandier are attacking from the group behind - where the German Festina duo are both sat on, doing no work.
Morton takes the final kilometre in the lead, hoping not to see a repeat of the last time this happened, when Pluchkin caught him. Well Lecuisinier is continuing to close that gap, now dropping Shikai.
But Lachlan Morton is going to win the stage! Unhurt from his crash on Stage 3, he will move into the race lead.
Lecuisinier ultimately finishes 50 seconds down. A great recovery, but he really should have reacted sooner. Still, the race is far from over. Shikai is at 1'20.
Olivier rode a controlled pace to limit his losses to 2'36, meanwhile Ikibe and Cort Nielsen lost ground in the closing stages to finish 4 minutes down. Still a good result for the pair.
La Lavandier is next at 4'30, dropping Carapaz who ends at 5 minutes with Herklotz - who decided to stretch his legs in the final kilometre.
Vasyliv, Dzhus and Lutsenko are next at 5'30, and into view now - scrambling to limit their losses - are Galta and Kudus.
6'03 for Galta, 6'19 for Kudus - the frustrating fact is that they climbed at a very similar pace to Morton on this climb. Kung would finish at 7'22.
