A potential stage filled with echelons in the latter half of the day, the opening segment of stage ten at the Tour de France was taken relatively easily by the peloton; with no real breakaway forming out front. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL remained within the bunch, looking to conserve their energy for the finale. Entering the last 60 kilometres the tension increased in the peloton as they turned into a section of possible crosswinds, however, the wind had abated and wasn’t strong enough to do any damage.
From there, the peloton relaxed a little more but the underlying nervousness remained as they made their way towards the sprint finish. An uncategorised climb within the last seven kilometres saw a big fight for position before a fast downhill run that led into the flat final three kilometres. Unfortunately, the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL train lost each other in the fast chaos and were shuffled back in the group. They tried to regroup as best as possible with Frank van den Broek bringing John Degenkolb forward, but unfortunately the rest of the sprint group got caught behind a small split. In the end Degenkolb went for it in the sprint, with the veteran German showing some good speed to take seventh place on the line.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston said: “We were together as a team over the hill in the finale but in the fast downhill towards the five kilometres to go mark we got a bit disconnected there and never really came back together with the sprint group. There was a good effort from Frank to bring John back into position to make the sprint but it was also a last minute call on the road because no one else was there, for John to then be the one to make the sprint. So for him it is a little bit of mixed feelings to get a top ten like this, as our goal here is to sprint with Fabio.”