It was only after sixty kilometres of racing that five riders escaped the peloton in the sixth Vuelta stage. One rider bridged later on. In the beginning of the race the peloton was riding at a speed of about fifty kilometres an hour, while the sun was burning! The escapees didn’t make it, it was Esteban Chaves who won and took back the leader’s jersey from Tom Dumoulin. Bart De Clercq was 26th at 20 seconds, Maxime Monfort 34th at 37 seconds.

“Adam Hansen was one of the first to attack, but he didn’t get away," Lotto Soudal sports director Mario Aerts said. "If the front group would have been bigger, there was a possibility they would make it, that’s why Adam tried to be in the break.

"The final climb was officially only 3.3 kilometres long, but the road already had been uphill for a few kilometres by that point. At the end the race exploded and the peloton fell apart. This kind of explosive climb isn’t something Maxime and Bart like, they prefer a longer climb a that’s coming up tomorrow.”