Yesterday was a disaster for Cofidis as the team lost Nacer Bouhanni. This morning the goal was to forget this bad day and not give up, bouncback  and show a more offensive strategy.

Kenneth Vanbilsen, Dani Navarro and Florian Senechal who crashed yesterday were well at the start. The stage promised to be quieter but was set to include a fight for the polka dot jersey. And in the finale, 2km from the finish, a climb mde it a finale for puncheurs.

From km 0, Luis Angel Mate decided to accelerate but he was quickly caught. Then three riders attacked. Vanbilsen was part of the action. These three riders got a 12-minute advantage. On the first two climbs, Daniel Teklehaimanot beat Vanbilsen in the sprint. On the third climb, it is also passed in first position, making him the first African rider to take the polka dot jersey.

The gap began to shrink significantly and 8km from the finish, Vanbilsen decided to attack. He delivered a magnificent effort but  2.5km from the finish, he was caught. At that time, Geoffrey Soupe was in the first positions to position Julien Simon.

Under the red kite, Simon was in the top three positions when Stybar attacked and got some meters. Simon stayed behind Katusha but Stybar had made the gap and was not caught. Simon finished 9th.

"It was a matter of self-defense," Vanbilsen said according to Cyclingnews. “Today I received a free role, also because of my knee. My uncle came to me before the start of the stage. He told me that the early breakaway move possibly would receive some distance today. That’s when I started thinking about it. Today I’ve been out of the chaos. I feared the pushing in the peloton and a possible new crash that would worsen the situation of my knee.

“At 15 kilometres from the finish I felt that I had something left in my tank. It seemed like the others were no longer co-operating. That’s why I attacked. Apparently they were at their limit. I felt that I would be faster alone than together... then you have to try it. All or nothing.

“It’s a shame Nacer is gone as the team was built around him. He wanted to have me in the team. We’ll have to race differently. We will probably ride more like we did today. In the sprints we’ll go for Geoffrey Soupe.”