They were 161 riders at the start of the stage in Requena. The breakaway of the day took shape early one, with four riders - Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), Fumiyuki Beppu (Trek-Segafredo), Quentin Jauregui (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre-Merida) – jumping away from the peloton in the sixth kilometer. They were joined by Louis Vervaeke (Lotto-Soudal).
The group had an advantage of almost five minutes after 32 kilometres while the pack was controlled by the Giant-Alpecin and Bora-Argon18 teams. Beppu was first at top of the only climb of the day, the second-category Puerto de Casa del Alto (km 69.8).
Midway through the stage, the gap stabilized around 6:30 and Etixx-Quick Step, working for Gianni Meersman, took over at the front, with some help from Dimension Data and BMC. Vervaeke was first at the intermediate sprint in Ontinyent (km 147) as the gap melted. Cattaneo was dropped from the breakaway 33 kilometres from the line.
The fugitives were caught 11.3 km from the line. Jan Bakelants (ag2r-La Mondiale) went solo with 3.5 km remaining but he was quickly caught by the bunch. Nielsen launched the sprint and held off Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) and Jempy Drucker, who won the previous bunch sprint in Peñíscola on Monday.
