Sander Armée didn't just let his début in his first Grand Tour pass by. After the disappointing team time trial, Lotto Belisol chose to attack. Already after three kilometers the 28-year-old rider took off. Together with Italian Fedi, Colombian Romero and Dutchman Tjallingii he got up to a maximal lead of more than seven minutes.

 

Because of the bad weather conditions it was literally raining flat tyres. Also Maxime Monfort stood at the side of the road for a moment.

 

At five kilometers from the finish the adventure was over for Armée. Tjallingii, the last of the escapees, was caught one kilometer further. A bunch sprint in the streets of Belfast was inevitable. Marcel Kittel conquered the first place, before Bouhanni and Nizzolo.

 

Tosh Van der Sande sprinted for Lotto Belisol and finished 13th. Michael Matthews takes over the pink jersey from teammate Svein Tuft.
 
"This morning some riders were selected to join breakaways, I was one of them," Armee said. "Immediately after the start Kenny Dehaes had tried to escape, but that group didn't get any space. After three kilometers and at the second attempt it was successful.

 

"The gap soon increased up to five minutes, then it went over seven minutes, but the peloton kept control. Although I didn't think about that too much during the stage.

 

"Along the way points for the mountain jersey could be earned, but the climbs weren't really hard; Tjallingii turned out to be the strongest and the fastest.

 

"The cooperation went well, everyone did his part of the work and eventually we stayed ahead for a long while. Tjallingii jumped away with ten kilometers to go and survived the longest. Fedi and I got caught with five kilometers to go.

 

"I will try to attack again later in the Giro; in other stages I will ride for Maxime Monfort. Your body feels such a breakaway of 210 kilometers in such weather conditions, but because of the transfer to Italy we already have a rest day on Monday. The sports direction has challenged the riders to race offensively this Giro and that was the case today."