[13] The duo extended their advantage to a maximum of around eight-and-a-half minutes around halfway into the stage,[14] but several teams sent riders to the front of the main field in order to bring back the lead pair towards the peloton before the finishing loop.

A crash in the peloton reduced numbers – to around thirty riders[16] – for the bunch sprint, where Argos–Shimano's Marcel Kittel held off the rest of the field for his first victory since June's Ster ZLM Toer.

[19] However, the stage was predominantly run in the far north-west of Germany,[18] passing through the villages of Tüddern, Höngen, Süsterseel and Hillensberg, where there was a small climb at the intermediate time-point.

After an opening loop in Belgium, the stage moved into the Netherlands and contested a circuit around the Limburgish town of Valkenburg aan de Geul,[26] the location of the UCI Road World Championships; the circuit included climbs of the Bemelerberg (twice) and the Cauberg[27] – both prominent in the single-day Amstel Gold Race held in the spring – before heading back towards Belgium and the eventual finish to the stage in Genk.

A four-rider breakaway was formed in the early kilometres of the stage, consisting of Team Sky's Alex Dowsett, Lampre–ISD rider Matteo Bono, Laurens De Vreese of Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator and James Vanlandschoot, representing Accent.jobs–Willems Veranda's.

Vanlandschoot's bid was ultimately unsuccessful, as Rabobank and Lotto–Belisol moved some of their riders forward in the hopes of setting up a sprint finish for their respective sprinters.

Six riders – Vacansoleil–DCM rider Frederik Veuchelen, Euskaltel–Euskadi's Adrián Sáez, Arnoud van Groen (Accent.jobs–Willems Veranda's), Martin Kohler of BMC Racing Team, Gert Dockx for Lotto–Belisol and Boris Shpilevsky representing Ag2r–La Mondiale – went clear in the early kilometres of the stage,[34] and quickly established a substantial lead on the road, reaching a maximum of around eight-and-a-half minutes within the first quarter of the stage.

[34] The squad brought the time gap down gradually, in order to maintain Keukeleire's lead on the road through the intermediate sprint points of the stage.

Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator, Rabobank and Argos–Shimano all helped out with the chase of the lead sextet, reducing the gap to under a minute inside of 30 km (18.6 mi) remaining of the stage.

[37] Veuchelen was swept up by the peloton on the finishing circuit, and it eventually amounted to a bunch sprint for the line; Team Katusha's Alexander Kristoff made his bid first,[35] but ultimately it was Marcel Kittel that took his second victory of the race,[38] ahead of Dockx's team-mate Jürgen Roelandts and Giacomo Nizzolo of RadioShack–Nissan.

[42] The field remained together until the finish where RadioShack–Nissan's Giacomo Nizzolo just managed to fend off the advances of Lotto–Belisol rider Jürgen Roelandts,[46] to take his third win of the season[47] and his first career World Tour victory, by inches.

Thus, Adrián Saez of Euskaltel–Euskadi, who, in 158th place[44] – of the 168 starters – trailed overall leader Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step) by twenty-eight minutes and thirteen seconds, was the first rider to set off on the stage.

Argos–Shimano rider Albert Timmer and Rick Flens of Rabobank each had spells at the top of the timesheets before Manuele Boaro, riding for Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank, stopped the clock for his run in a time of 21' 11".

Tuft and Steegmans' team-mate Tom Boonen, the winner of the Muur-less Tour of Flanders earlier in the season both suffered punctures within the peloton as the gap was closing, but both were eventually able to rejoin the main field after several kilometres of chasing.

[61] Tuft would later cost himself a chance of third place overall; he received a 20-second time penalty for taking a water bottle inside of the final 20 km (12.4 mi) of the stage.

BMC Racing Team's Marcus Burghardt, a breakaway member, again attacked on the Muur and took several riders with him, including Alberto Contador of Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank, who had been inside the top ten of the general classification overnight.

[61] Bakelants stayed off the front until the final Muur climb, but provided Burghardt's team-mate, Alessandro Ballan – winner of the 2007 Tour of Flanders – with the ammunition to attack.