Serie B

They have lost a few bodies: Tratnik has just been caught by the peloton, while Armirail, Barguil and a couple of others have been dropped from the second group on the road as it comes to within 40 seconds of the leaders. The sprint is coming up after 12km. Oh, and Armirail is just back – so perhaps he was simply answering a call of nature or picking something up from the car.

For the third time today, the Frenchman crests a summit ahead of Richard Carapaz to pocket maximum polka dot jersey points. Just two this time, but every little helps.

The eight leaders are onto the Cat.3 Cote des Terrasses (3.4km at 6.6%). Should Paret-Peintre take the 2pts over the top, he’ll be just seven points shy of Tadej Pogacar’s lead in the KOM standings.

The difference between the Frenchman and his rival Carapaz is that the former is going all-in for polka dot points, whereas Carapaz has an eye on the stage win today.

It looks like the GC fireworks will go on hold for another day – or, when they play out, they will have no bearing on the stage result. That’s because Pogacar and his GC rivals are now 5’10” behind. The 28 chasers are still 50 seconds behind the 14 leaders.

They’re on the short descent to the foot of the next categorised climb.

The large 28-man chase group is only 50 seconds down and might make the connection before the next climb. Some big names in the move:

Armirail (Visma), Tratnik (Red Bull), Simmons (Lidl), Baudin, Healy, Valgren (all EF), Tejada (Astana), Caruso (Bahrain), Kwiatkowski (Ineos), Stuyven, Vervaeke (both Soudal), O’Connor, Matthews (both Jayco), Cort (Uno-X), Bennett, Frigo (both NSN), Rubio (Movistar), Izagirre (Cofidis), Howson, Meurisse (Pinarello), Braz Afonso, Martin (both Groupama), Hirschi, Storer (both Tudor), Delbove, Delettre and Le Berre (all TotalEnergies).