Courtesy of the undulating parcours, the stage saw a flurry of attacks go, even if all of them were chased down by the peloton, and it all came down to a massive sprint. The most combative rider around was, needless to say, Sarah Ulmer: once more the "serial escapee" from New Zealand delighted us with her attacks, but once more she couldn't reap the fruits of her efforts. After Swetlana Bubnekova extended her lead in the Mountains classification by winning the km.6 prime, Ulmer started her show as she made her first move, with Italian Alessandra Borchi (Societá Ciclistica Michela Fanini-Record Rox) as provisional breakaway companion. They built an adavantage of thirty seconds, but the kiwi went on her own by km. 20, at the foot of the second ascent of the day. Borchi was caught soon later, while fellow Italian Eleonora Soldo (Fanini Velo) was adding her name to the list of DNFers (U.S. cyclist Lynn Gaggioli previously added hers to the list of DNSers instead).

Sarah the Serial Escapee increased her lead to 48" by km. 31, but that wasn't much of a problem to Team Bigla-led bunch, that brought her back by km. 42. But that wasn't much of a problem to Ulmer, who attacked again a couple miles later, with Borchi following her wheels again, this time along with three more riders: Russian Julia Martisova (PMB Fenixs), Catalan Marta Vilajosana (Lazio) and another combative kiwigirl, Joanne Kiesanowski of Nobili R