A series of attacks on the early slopes of the ascent of Glendora Mountain Road saw the race dramatically thinned down, with first relentless pressure from Olga Zabelinskaya (Cogeas Mettler), then attacks from Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) and Trixi Worrack (Trek-Segafredo) establishing a small gap before being reabsorbed into the field.
Kathrin Hammes (WNT-Rotor) and Omer Shapira (Canyon-SRAM) were the next to attack, on the Glendora Ridge Road, and were joined by Rivera on the descent towards Mount Baldy Village. The trio started the final climb with a 40-second advantage on the chasing group of favourites including the eventual front pair.
Shapira left her companions behind, going solo once the climbing began in earnest on Mt Baldy. The peloton wass whittled down to only the best climbers by five kilometres to go, including Hall, Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), and Moolman-Pasio.
Van der Breggen bridged to this group, but teammate Hall had already gone off in search of Shapira, and the world champion dropped her rivals and set off in pursuit.
Hall and van der Breggen caught up with Shapira, and then left the Israeli champion behind with an upping of the pace about two kilometres from the line. The Boels-Dolmans teammates did not attack each other, instead riding to the finish together, with van der Breggen giving the stage win to Hall.
Moolman-Pasio finished in third place, 33 seconds down, with Clara Koppenburg (WNT-Rotor) fourth and Shapira managing to hold on for fifth, also being awarded the jersey of most courageous rider.
Brodie Chapman (TIBCO-SVB) was the highest-placed Australian finisher, climbing to sixth overall after finishing seventh on the stage.
