Just as the breakaway was about to reach the intermediate sprint in the town of A Barroca,
Marc Soler went down to his team car to get a water bottle. He grabbed it with his right hand, put it on his bike... and, just a few metres ahead, Wout van Aert used this opportunity to launch an attack, to seemingly secure points towards Green jersey competition, which soon turned out to be the decisive one.
The Belgian added the points for the intermediate sprint, but he did not stop there, because he saw that his attack had done damage and Soler was one of the victims. Only FDJ's Quentin Pacher was able to catch up to Van Aert and the trio behind them had never seen them again.