It was a brilliant victory for Australian Michael Storer (Team DSM), but behind the West Australian, there was plenty of action and calculating as first a massive breakaway formed and then attacks from the peloton ignited the action on an exciting day of racing.
After a long, hard skirmish over the category 1 climb of Puerto de Llacuna to start the stage, a group of six riders eventually forged clear with a much larger attack away from the peloton swelling the early breakaway's numbers to 30.
Among them were the likes of Australian Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Felix Großschartner (BORA-hansgrohe), Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) and Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma). All have pedigree in riding for overall results, and were all within three minutes and 16 seconds at the start of the day on the general classification, with Polanc closest to the overall lead of Roglič at 1'42.
The quartet would all finish the stage inside the new top-ten overall with Großschartner narrowly missing out on the race lead by just eight seconds.
Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) went to the front to ride for his Slovenian teammate and succeeded in pushing out the break's lead as Jumbo-Visma were left to ride the front by themselves back in the peloton.
Movistar launched a daring assault on the Puerto El Collao with Miguel Angel Lopez and Alejandro Valverde, with Roglič having to respond himself to the move along with Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers). Valverde crashed out on the descent, and after picking himself up and trying to continue, the 41-year-old abandoned the race.
That put a bit of a dampener on proceedings, from there the attack of Lopez, Carapaz and the race leader was brought back to the peloton and Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma) set a solid tempo.
Behind the group of riders going for the stage win, it was a fight between riders looking to move up the general classification, with the red jersey even a realistic opportunity for Polanc and Großschartner. Polanc couldn't hold the pace in the group of chasers and Großschartner was suddenly closest in line to take the red jersey. He held strong during the final ascent, but couldn't quite follow the accelerations of Kuss and Haig, who finished fourth and fifth on the stage.
The Austrian was only just behind in seventh, with a nervous wait to see if Roglič would finish far enough behind for him to take the race lead.
Adam Yates (INEOS Grenadiers) came to the fore on the final climb in the peloton and forced the tempo at key points, seeing a number of pre-race favourites dropped and struggling to regain contact with the now severely diminished main bunch. He led the group across the line, with Roglič, Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers), Louis Meintjes (Intermarche), Davide De La Cruz (UAE Team Emirates), Enric Mas and Miguel Angel Lopez (both Movistar) all on the same time.
Roglič finished 2'01 behind Großschartner, only leaving an eight-second buffer to the Austrian, who moved to second overall.
Alexandr Vlasov (Astana-PremierTech) lost 13 seconds, while Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), Fabio Aru (Qhubeka-NextHash), Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) all conceded thirty seconds on the day.
Valverde wasn't the only GC favourite to abandon the race, last year's podium-finisher Hugh Carthy abandoned the race during the stage after struggling so far during the race. His EF Education-Nippo team said he wasn't suffering from illness or injury after losing nearly three minutes on Stage 6.
