Evans moved from 14th to 12th overall after Alejandro Valverde (previously second) and his Movistar teammate, Rui Costa (previously ninth), fell out of the top 10.

Evans and five of his teammates made an initial selection when Omega Pharma-Quick Step split the race in strong crosswinds with 115 kilometres of the 173km race to go. But none of the six BMC Racing Team riders were part of a 14-man group that formed when six from Team Saxo-Tinkoff sharply accelerated with 31 km left. They ultimately finished 69 seconds ahead of Evans and race leader Chris Froome (Sky Procycling). In between all of that, Valverde suffered a flat tire and the chasing efforts of five teammates could not return him to the leading group.

"The first split there was a little bit expected," Evans said. "But the big thing was that Valverde had a really unfortunate puncture. I'm sorry for him. It's sometimes how it goes. It's happened to me as well in the past." Evans lamented not making the final selection, from which Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) won the stage ahead of Peter Sagan (Cannondale Pro Cycling). "I'm a bit disappointed I missed the final split," he said. "Moving forward a couple places is good, but I want to move forward a lot of places. But we have a couple of big days of racing over the weekend, so we'll see."