Potentially a day for the breakaway, a strong headwind made it difficult for any break to form in the early part of the stage. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL were active in covering the moves, before eventually the elastic snapped when a four rider group went clear. Focusing on protecting finisher Juliette Labous, the team once again rode well as a unit, bringing Labous into position for the final climb. As the kilometres ticked by the pace ramped up and it began a race of attrition as riders were slowly shelled from the bag of the ever reducing peloton. In the end, Labous just had to let go of the very front of the group in the final kilometre, riding it in to the line for seventh place on the day; a result that sees her and the team move up to fourth on GC ahead of the weekend.
Labous expressed: “Today was a nervous star with climbing and crosswinds, but nothing really happened and it turned into headwind. Then it was a really slow race until the final. The girls did a good job to protect me and put me in a good position on the climb. From there, it was around a 20-minute test basically but I just missed that bit for a top result. I went as hard as I could though and felt better than I did in the last days, and I think the shape is there, so we will try everything to keep fighting to get on that podium.”
