The first hour of the race had been ridden at full speed despite the long climb of the Alto de Fonfria. After a long battle, the good breakaway formed in two stages: van Aert first went out with another Belgian, William Jr Lecerf and Marc Soler. They were joined a little further on by Pacher and Juri Hollmann. The peloton then gave up the pursuit and the gap increased rapidly.
Before the final climb of the day, van Aert went on the attack and only Pacher followed him. Trapped, Soler and Lecerf were forced into a big pursuit in the ten kilometer climb that followed. In vain.
At the top, the two men had a 37-second lead over their pursuers. They continued to collaborate until 1.5 kilometers from the line when Pacher tried his luck. But van Aert was much stronger and easily got back on the wheel of the Frenchman before outclassing him in the sprint. More than two minutes behind, Marc Soler won the sprint for 3rd place, ahead of Lecerf and Hollmann.
The favourites took a second day of rest. On the last climb, the Alto de Mougas, Richard Carapaz tried his luck but was unable to make any difference. The gaps between the best are therefore unchanged: Ben O’Connor keeps his red jersey with a 3’53” lead over Primoz Roglic and 4’32” over Richard Carapaz.
