Barredo held the top spot for around quarter of an hour, as his time was marginally beaten by Andriy Hryvko, a four-time Ukrainian champion in the discipline, riding for the Astana team.

Durbridge set a time of 6' 38",[17] in the favourable conditions; he held on to his spot throughout the expected changeable weather that was a factor in the remainder of the running order.

[18] Thus, Durbridge took his first stage victory at World Tour level, which gave him a clean sweep of the jerseys post-stage, for holding the lead of the overall, points and young rider classifications.

Other overall contenders Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team), Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Tony Martin, Jérôme Coppel (Saur–Sojasun), as well as van Garderen's team-mate Cadel Evans and 2010 winner Janez Brajkovič (Astana) all lost time in comparison to Wiggins; Martin placed best in fifth position, although Evans also made the top ten, in ninth place.

[25] The teams of several of the general classification contenders were prevalent on the front of the peloton as they set about reducing the advantage that the breakaway group of six riders were holding over them.

Another big crash happened some 20 km (12.4 mi) later with Orica–GreenEDGE's Simon Gerrans, Vacansoleil–DCM rider Pim Ligthart and Dan Martin of Garmin–Barracuda among those to hit the tarmac.

[23] Bernaudeau – who had figured at each of the mountain passes to the point – and Doi failed to stay with their companions as they approached the day's final climb, the Côte de la Sizeranne.

Tjallingii was also dropped by the remaining members of the breakaway, while in the main field, Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) and Andy Schleck of RadioShack–Nissan – who had been criticised by team manager Johan Bruyneel for his poor opening half to the season[26][27] – were both struggling off the back of the group.

Another three-rider move went forwards from the peloton as Rolland's team-mate Cyril Gautier, Rabobank's Luis León Sánchez and BMC Racing Team rider Philippe Gilbert got clear by several seconds.

[35] After a period of stability within the main group, a four-rider move consisting of three French riders – David Moncoutié representing Cofidis, Blel Kadri of Ag2r–La Mondiale and Team Europcar's Christophe Kern, who won a stage during the 2011 race – as well as Colombia's Cayetano Sarmiento, riding for the Liquigas–Cannondale team, advanced clear of the field and quickly established an advantage over them; of those, Kadri was best-placed at just eleven seconds behind Wiggins prior to the stage.

With the field back together, several riders attempted solo moves off the front of the peloton, including Kadri's team-mate Mikaël Cherel,[35] but all were unsuccessful.

Omega Pharma–Quick-Step held their riders on the front of the peloton in the closing stages, with Sylvain Chavanel,[43] seventh overall, being protected by his team-mates before setting the pace at times.

[45] Philippe Gilbert attacked for BMC Racing Team with 1.5 km (0.9 mi) to go,[43] gaining an advantage of a few seconds but was caught with around 300 m (980 ft) left.

[45] Due to the crash in the closing metres and the resultant nullification of any time gaps, Boasson Hagen's team-mate Bradley Wiggins maintained his one-second lead in the general classification over Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team),[47] despite his earlier reservations of holding the lead into the time trial due to the skinsuit type provided by the race organisation compared to that of his team.

Thus, Arnaud Gérard of FDJ–BigMat, who, in 172nd place[45] – of the 175 starters – trailed overall leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) by thirty minutes and forty-nine seconds, was the first rider to set off on the stage.

[53] At the end of the stage, Kelderman stated that his performance came as "a surprise",[54] taking the lead of the young rider classification from Tony Gallopin (RadioShack–Nissan) in the process.

Three categorised climbs were part of the 186.5 km (115.9 mi) parcours of the day,[60] notably the hors catégorie Le Grand Colombier[62] – making its début in the race – with an average gradient of 6.9%, reaching up to an altitude of 1,501 m (4,925 ft), but the summit of the final climb – the Col de Richemond – came with 45.5 km (28.3 mi) remaining of the stage.

Mini-attacks set the course of the early running of the stage, which was carried out a quick pace, with the peloton covering 48.3 km (30.0 mi) in the first hour of racing.

[63] On the descent from the climb, a group of BMC Racing Team riders including Cadel Evans, George Hincapie and Tejay van Garderen broke out from the peloton,[64] in the hope of pulling Evans nearer the overall lead of Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins, following his time loss the previous day in the individual time trial.

Kern was part of another six-rider wave that went clear on the descent from the Col de Richemond, with the highest-placed rider being ninth-placed Luis León Sánchez of Rabobank.

[68] After a pair of third-category passes, the field tackled another first-category climb, the Col de la Colombière coming with 65 km (40.4 mi) remaining of the stage.

[72] Quintana was too far ahead for Evans to catch him back, and eventually achieved his first World Tour victory by sixteen seconds ahead of Evans,[71] with Team Katusha's Daniel Moreno leading a group of eight riders,[72] including Wiggins – and team-mates Michael Rogers and Chris Froome – as well as Van Den Broeck, across the line eight seconds later.

[75] RadioShack–Nissan's Andy Schleck, one of the favourites for July's Tour de France, abandoned during the stage citing a knee injury from his time trial crash.

[76] Although the stage was relatively short at 124.5 km (77.4 mi) in length, the parcours still featured five categorised climbs – of which one was to the finish in Châtel – reaching its highest point with the first-category Col du Corbier.

It was not until a third of the way through the stage – some 40 km (24.9 mi) in – that a move was allowed to be established on the road, as Team Europcar rider Pierre Rolland, Saur–Sojasun's Jérôme Coppel and Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil–DCM accelerated out of the peloton.

[78] They were later joined by five more riders as Omega Pharma–Quick-Step pairing Sylvain Chavanel and Stijn Vandenbergh, Astana's Dmitry Fofonov, Yaroslav Popovych of RadioShack–Nissan and Christophe Le Mével representing the Garmin–Barracuda team provided some assistance to the breakaway move.

[81] Evans later stated that he was beaten by "the better rider",[82] but remained pleased with his performance of third place, a stage victory and the points classification title.

For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, the leader received a yellow jersey with a blue bar.