The mythical Puy de Dôme saw the breakaway and GC riders do battle alike, with the team keeping Romain Bardet safe ahead of the famous climb, where he dug deep on the stinging slopes and holds onto a top ten on GC.
A quick start saw a breakaway go clear almost from the gun and despite a frantic chase by some teams, they eventually sat up and those ahead were allowed to go clear. With no one in the break an immediate threat for GC, their advantage continued to grow, hitting a maximum of almost 16 minutes and they would ultimately fight it out for the stage win. In the peloton behind, the team came to the fore well on the fast and twisting run-in to Clermont-Ferrand, bringing Bardet into a good position as the climb started.
With the sprint group having finished their role, Bardet still had Kevin Vermaerke, Chris Hamilton and Matt Dinham with him for support. As the kilometres ticked by the group began to thin down, with the pace slowly ramping up. Just as they hit the steep final four kilometre section, which averaged twelve percent in gradient, the tempo went up one notch more and the GC group split. Bardet found himself in the second group and had to ride at his own pace, to not go too far into the red, fighting all the way to the line and holding onto tenth place on GC.
