Greig Leach

With roughly six minutes in hand over the peloton, Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and his team director had plenty of time to savor their collective moment. Van Avermaet put over five minutes between himself and the former top of the leader board. At this point, the man in second, Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quickstep), while he started the day in the same GC position, it was then only a difference of 10 seconds to the former Yellow Jersey of Peter Sagan (Tinkoff). Those who hope to wear the Maillot Jaune on the Champs Elysees, will have a much tougher time of taking the lead from Van Avermaet than he had grabbing the jersey for himself. Most of the contenders came home together with the notable exception of Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) who is apparently in a lot more pain from his early crash then he is letting anyone know.