Rafal Majka climbs up the GC despite being "run over" at a Sunday in Hell

A crash 65km see Majka run-over as hit hit the desk, but the BORA-hansgrohe riders rallied around their GC leader and brought him back to the front group in an incredible team effort

A crash 65km out caught Rafal, but the BORA-hansgrohe riders rallied around their GC leader and brought him back to the front group in an incredible team effort.

The difficulty of the stage was really hitting the break hard as they dropped in number, while attacks from the peloton after the longest sector of pavé saw Peter join a select lead group with some classics specialists among them.

With 20km remaining, the break had only fifteen seconds in hand, the lead group making the catch before the push for the finish started – attack after attack came, with Peter working every time to shut them down.

With 15km remaining, Lampert, Degenkold and Van Vaermaet went clear leaving Peter Sagan in the chasing group.

Peter supplemented his points lead taking fifth in the sprint for the remaining places while Rafal finished safely with the GC riders, climbing to sixth in the overall standings after an excellent performance on a difficult parcours.