The fourth-category Côte de Buthiers ascent offered the first points towards the mountains classification of the race, but at 500 m (1,600 ft) long and a gradient of 4.2%, was not going to test the riders too much.

Intermediate sprints at Malesherbes and La Madeleine-sur-Loing offered bonus seconds towards the general classification, the latter coming on a 47 km (29.2 mi) loop around Nemours,[25] before the stage finish.

After the climb, there was a crash in the peloton, which forced Rui Costa (Movistar Team) to withdraw from the race, with a wrist injury, bruising and stitches.

[35] Smukulis and Christensen soldiered on with a lead of around four minutes, but the peloton were back together by the 43 km (26.7 mi) mark, as FDJ established the pace of the group, to keep the overall leader Nacer Bouhanni out of danger.

[36] After around 20 km (12.4 mi) of stasis within the field, two of Boeckmans' teammates – Thomas De Gendt and Juan Antonio Flecha – attacked, along with Euskaltel–Euskadi rider Mikel Astarloza and Maxime Bouet of Ag2r–La Mondiale, and their advantage reached a similar mark to that achieved by the first breakaway, at around four minutes.

The breakaway was negated with 45 km (28.0 mi) left to cover of the stage, when the sprinters' teams started to make early headway towards the front of the peloton.

Lampre–Merida tried to launch Alessandro Petacchi first, but Marcel Kittel (Argos–Shimano) finished strongest down the right-hand side of the road and achieved his second win of the season by three bike lengths.

For the second day running, Saxo–Tinkoff's Mads Christensen made it into an attacking move, where he was joined by Vacansoleil–DCM rider Martijn Keizer, Sébastien Minard (Ag2r–La Mondiale) and Alexis Vuillermoz of the Sojasun team.

Keizer led the group over the top of the two third-category climbs, and as a result, took the polka-dot jersey for mountains classification leader away from his teammate Bert-Jan Lindeman.

[46] The quartet were slowly brought back, and with added impetus from Team Katusha, RadioShack–Leopard and Astana, the peloton had caught them prior to the Côte de Mauvagnat, with 23 km (14.3 mi) remaining.

Porte tried a long stint on the front of the group, but Bardet accelerated past him only to fade shortly after, and it was Talansky that prevailed by a bike length over Malacarne and Izagirre.

[49] Starting in the previous day's finishing commune of Brioude, the fourth stage was packed full of climbs, with a total of seven over the course of the 199.5 km (124.0 mi) parcours.

[52] The Côte de la Sizeranne, which was situated 8.5 km (5.3 mi) from the finish in Saint-Vallier, had most recently featured during the first stage of the 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné; the climb had been a catalyst to a late-stage attack from Cadel Evans, Jérôme Coppel and Andrey Kashechkin, with the trio managing to hold off the advancing peloton by just four seconds.

After an initial solo move from Saxo–Tinkoff's Michael Mørkøv was chased down, Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step) along with Johann Tschopp of IAM Cycling and Javier Moreno of the Movistar Team went clear on the day's first climb, the Côte de Lachaud.

[55] Numerous teams had stints on the front of the peloton, as they steadily brought back the lead group, as Tschopp accumulated enough points to take the polka-dot jersey as mountains classification leader.

[51] With the group back together, several riders attempted to create solo moves on the final climb, the Côte de la Sizeranne, and on its descent.

Iglinsky managed to hold on to second ahead of Chavanel's teammate Peter Velits,[57] while Talansky maintained the race lead with a sixth-place finish.

[64] RadioShack–Leopard's Jens Voigt – who finished in the top ten on the stage in 2009[65] – initiated the day's breakaway after 14 km (8.7 mi) of racing, and was later joined by Sojasun rider Cyril Lemoine, Paolo Longo Borghini of Cannondale and Thierry Hupond of the Argos–Shimano team.

Heading towards the final climb at La Montagne de Lure, the leaders still held a lead of approaching two minutes but was quickly being dwindled, with Team Sky moving their riders towards the front.

[66] At the foot of the climb, Voigt attacked on his own for the second time during the stage, as the peloton began to shrink with the pace mainly being set by Kanstantsin Sivtsov and David López, with the squad's leader Richie Porte just behind them.

Denis Menchov attacked just before 2 km (1.2 mi) to go, and was initially given freedom to build a gap, at which point, Talansky made a third move before Porte closed him down again.

[65] Porte launched his own attack with 1.4 km (0.9 mi) left, quickly catching and passing Menchov, and soloed away to the stage victory and the yellow jersey.

[71] Astana rider Egor Silin was the catalyst of the breakaway, attacking on the Côte du Bois de Rousset, gaining maximum points on offer for the climb.

[74] The breakaway was brought back by the main field prior to the day's second and final intermediate sprint point at Tourrettes-sur-Loup,[71] with 34.5 km (21.4 mi) remaining of the stage.

Astana's Andriy Hrivko as well as Omega Pharma–Quick-Step pairing Peter Velits and Sylvain Chavanel attacked prior to the sprint, to gain vital bonus seconds towards the general classification.

[72] Ag2r–La Mondiale and the BMC Racing Team moved towards the front for Samuel Dumoulin and Philippe Gilbert respectively, but Chavanel surprised both riders to take the sprint on the line.

Thus, Rick Flens of Blanco Pro Cycling, who, in 151st place, trailed overall leader Richie Porte (Team Sky) by one hour, twenty minutes and nine seconds, was the first rider to set off on the final stage.

Simon Špilak (Team Katusha) had gone quicker to the intermediate point than Quintana, but faded in the second half of the stage, and was thus unable to match his fourth place of 2012.

[81] Quintana's time remained untouched until the final two riders to start the stage; much like 2012, the top two were to battle for victory, as Porte and Andrew Talansky of Garmin–Sharp were split by 32 seconds pre-stage.

[83] Péraud had faded to five seconds behind Quintana at the finish – despite falling at the start[81] – and with slower times for those around in him the general classification, he sealed a place on the final podium.