An extremely dangerous group and one that wouldn't be brought back, simply there were too many riders and teams interested in front and not much firepower behind to bring things back. The overall classification has been affected quite significantly because of this, with some of the men above gaining serious time ahead of what would on paper be the key stages of the race.
Julian Alaphilippe attacked inside the final climb already however it was
Bart Lemmen's acceleration that really split the group to bits, with the pure climbers not being able to make the difference. He was followed by three Frenchman: Alaphilippe, Romain Grégoire and Kévin Vauquelin. In the wet and technical descent Grégoire took risks and got a gap over the rest.
The Groupama - FDJ rider would take full advantage of this attack to go on and win another stage this year, in style by himself and jumping into the yellow jersey - whilst also placing himself as a serious contender to win the race. Kévin Vauquelin sprinted to second followed by Lemmen.