We bet that it would end in a sprint, but after yesterday’s travails in the Alps, a break managed to outwit and out-power the peloton and beat the charging peloton to the line.

We’re aiming to match them on tomorrow’s stage. Anything can still happen in this Tour de France and tomorrow is a great chance. The 172.8-km stage from Moirans-en-Montagne to Poligny runs through the foothills of the Jura mountains along the French-Swiss border in the region of Franche-Comtè. Although there are only two categorised climbs, the fourth-cat Côte du Bois de Lionge near the start and third-cat Côte d’Ivory with 25 kilometers to go, the course will take its toll as it rolls up and down all day.

Read our team’s thoughts from after today’s stage.

Tomorrow will be a hard stage. Especially after today, where we saw the break make it, I expect there will be a lot of riders and teams that will want to be up there to try and make it from a breakaway before a bunch sprint and I want to be in it.

On paper, today was not a stage for the breakaway, but obviously it was the 18th stage of the Tour de France and the sprinters’ teams were tired as well. We want to invest everything in tomorrow. That’s why we were not there today. Tomorrow is the best opportunity for us. I hope it is going to be our day.