The pink jersey Tadej Pogacar had a relatively quiet day and retains the lead in the general classification. The Belgian Cian Uijtdebroeks took a bonus second during the intermediate sprint and retains his white jersey as best young person.
At the start of the stage, four riders left the peloton: Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty), Francesco Muñoz (Polti-Kometa), Stefan De Bod (EF Pro Cycling) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers). But just half an hour later, the latter allowed himself to be caught up by the peloton.
The three other riders – who were up to 5'30″ ahead – competed for points at the various intermediate points. Lilian Calmejane took the lead on the only difficulty counting for the mountain classification while Francesco Muñoz won the intermediate sprint as well as the intergiro. After the latter, Calmejane got up while his two companions continued the adventure. They were finally caught 5 kilometers from the finish.
In the peloton, the rain caused damage with several falls. Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) and Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) initially fell without gravity. But a few kilometers later, a bigger fall took place in a wet bend. Among the many victims, we found Ben O'Connor (Décathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Einer Rubio (Movistar) but especially Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty). The Eritrean sprinter started again after a few minutes but fell again in another corner and was forced to retire.
This Wednesday, a new opportunity awaits the sprinters between Genoa and Lucca over 178 kilometers.
