After the start, a top group of eight formed. In the main field, the Katusha team led by the Spaniard Joaquim Rodríguez took over the follow-up work in order to put him in a good starting position for the first mountain classification of the day. Rodríguez was only one point behind Poland's Rafał Majka (TCS), who had taken the lead in this classification on the previous stage. Kadri won the intermediate sprint after 31 kilometers ahead of Elmiger and Paulinho. The eight leaders were about a minute ahead of the field.
On the climb to Col du Portillon, Rodríguez attacked from the peloton , followed by Rafał Majka. A few other drivers overtook the leading group on the climb. Rodríguez then won the mountain classification ahead of Nicolas Roche (TCS) and Kristijan Đurasek (LAM), Majka initially remained without a point and was again behind the Spaniard in the virtual mountain classification. After the summit, the individual groups came together so that 22 riders were at the top, including Rodríguez and Majka Bauke Mollema (BEL), Fränk Schleck (TCS), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (LTB) and Pierre Rolland (EUC). Wassil Kiryjenka (SKY) broke away from this group a little later . He was the first to climb the Col de Peyresourde and also won the ten mountain points on the summit. On the descent, Kiryjenka was about 1:15 minutes ahead of the chasing group, which still consisted of 16 drivers.
At the Col de Val Louron-Azet , the runaway's lead began to shrink steadily; in the end, Kiryjenka was overtaken by the pursuers on the last kilometer before the summit when Rodríguez increased the pace. The Spaniard won the third mountain classification of the day ahead of Rafał Majka and Jon Izaguirre (MOV) and thus got another ten points in the mountain classification, so he was virtually 11 points ahead of Majka. In the group around the yellow jersey attacked Romain Bardet (ALM) with the goal of Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) to distance the support of the White jerseys. Pinot had taken the lead from Bardet in this ranking the day before. Giovanni Visconti (MOV) had pulled away in front and drove towards the mountain finish with a slight margin. However, Majka first overtook him and then overtook him. In the favorites, Vincenzo Nibali (AST) tried several times to shake off his pursuers in the overall standings and increased the pace several times. Only Jean-Christophe Péraud (ALM) was able to follow, all others fell behind the overall leader again.
Rafał Majka secured his second day's tour victory by climbing the last mountain, at the same time he got 50 points for the mountain classification and was thus again ahead of Rodríguez, who slipped into third place in the mountain classification behind Nibali. Visconti finished second, followed by Nibali and Péraud. In the battle for the white jersey, everything stayed the same as Pinot was able to repel Bardet's attacks and both crossed the finish line with the same deficit to Majka.
tasks
AustraliaSimon Gerrans (OGE): did not start the stage
Simon Gerrans (OGE): did not start the stage
Reto Hollenstein (IAM): did not start the stage
Simon Špilak (KAT): Task during the stage
