Greig Leach

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) seemed to announce that he would not be going for the stage victory today. He went to the front of the peloton and with the help of Ian Stannard (Sky) and Robert Power (Orica-BikeExchange) set about the task of bringing the escapees back. Dimension Data has the Yellow Jersey in the fold, on the back of Steve Cummings, so letting those in front gain time wasn't really in the cards. More of a threat were those in on the team leader's wheel, Rohan Dennis (BMC) sitting just inside of a minute behind. Dennis is equal on time after this morning's time trial with Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin). So it could be that Cavendish was just making the race hard for everyone rather than actually trying to chase down Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and company.