20 riders ultimately formed the day's breakaway however and they didn't feature a specific threat for the overall classification, taking into consideration that UAE never let the gap grow much above the 2 minute mark and kept chasing throughout the whole day. Enric Mas, Andreas Leknessund,
Tobias Johannessen, Axel Laurance and Pierre Latour were among the escapees in a day where the breakaway looked to have clear freedom to fight for the win.
The group went through the day's climbs and the stage was only to be decided in the flat finale. It was just inside the final 20 kilometers that an attack from Movistar's Jon Barrenetxea formed a six-rider group including
Johannes Staune-Mittet, Thomas Gachignard, Giovanni Carboni, Tobias Johannessen and Iker Mintegi.
The group created a meaningful gap to their rivals, but then Gachinard and Mintegi crashed with 6 kilometers to go, and Carboni seemed to have a mechanical at the same time - leaving three riders in front.
The three mutually attacked each other, but ultimately it came down to a sprint with Staune-Mittet launching his sprint first. Barrenetxea then took it up, and mid-sprint he actually collided with Johannessen. However the Spaniard was the fastest and celebrated the triumph, whilst the Norwegian extensively complained about the move.