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Victor Lafay put an end to one of the most infamous statistics in Tour de France history, breaking Cofidis drought of stage wins at the race, which had stretched back to Sylvain Chavanel's Stage 19 win in 2008.
Lafay seized his chance with a late move, attacking with a kilometre remaining and managing to catch all the other favourites napping.
Jumbo-Visma were setting the pace for Wout van Aert, but the Frenchman proved a handful to contain as he quickly grew his lead on the streets of San Sebastian. The sprint started from the much-reduced bunch behind, and van Aert was nearly able to overhaul the Frenchman on the finish line, but it was the Cofidis man who posted up in celebration, as van Aert punched the air in frustration.
“When I attacked, I didn’t even evaluate if it was going to work or not,"said Lafay. "Then I was seeing the finishing line getting closer and my power getting lower in numbers but it has worked out. It’s crazy."
The 27-year-old had impressed on the previous day, when he kept pace with Pogacar and Vingegaard on the main climb, but this was a whole new level for him, his previous biggest win coming at the Giro d'Italia.
"This was definitely planned. Yesterday it wasn’t planned when I accompanied Pogacar and Vingegaard at the top of the last climb," said Lafay. "Today I didn’t want to do anything on the hill except for keeping up with the top guns.
"It’s a relief for Cofidis to finally get a stage win. I’ve been hearing about this for five years since I joined the team. I’m happy to free the team from this burden."
The pace was hot leading into the climb of the Jaizkibel, with all teams looking to be part of the action on stage where the general classification riders and good climbers among the sprinters all saw the opportunity for time gaps or stage success, respectively.
Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) was the final cyclist remaining of a group of three riders that went clear at the start of the stage, with the American joined by Edvald Boasson Hagen (Total Energies) and Remi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep).
Powless dropped first Cavagna then Boasson Hagen but he couldn't hold off the charging main bunch on the Jaizkibel as they set a ferocious tempo.
UAE Team Emirates continued their aggression as they thinned out the group of favourites with a hot tempo set by Rafal Majka and Adam Yates before Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) attacked with Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) in tow.
Pogacar was the fastest over the top of the climb to claim the maximum bonus seconds, and even looked to press on from there, but Vingegaard wasn't in a mood to cooperate with the Slovenian and the other candidates for general classification success rejoined the ascendant pair.
It then came down to the run into the finish in San Sebastian, with a number of riders trying late attacks before Lafay launched the decisive move. Adam Yates retained the yellow jersey on the day.
