Greig Leach

After the effort of getting into the early morning break (well mid-afternoon anyway), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) wasn't going to leave anything to chance. He had not been challenged over the Cote de Felletin, but he wasn't about to assume he would find the others so agreeable on teh Cote de Pontcharraud. He went off the front, looking back to make sure no one was about to sprint out of the break away and grap the points at the top. They did not. In fact, they left him unchallenged on all but the final climb to the finish atop the Puy de Dome. He must have been quite happy with Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), Clement Berthet (Ag2r-Citroen), Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and the other nine members of the break. By this point, working together, they had built up a nearly eleven minute gap on the peloton full of all of the favorites/hopefuls of the general classification.