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Mohorič was the fastest and toughest in the final sprint to the line in an attack that contained Australian Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroen) and previous stage winner Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep).
O’Connor attacked first, but Asgreen was able to cover the move and then start his own sprint, but Mohorič had just enough left to dive past his Danish rival on the finish line.
"This victory means a lot because it’s hard and cruel to be a pro cyclist,” said Mohorič. “You suffer a lot in preparation to get ready, then you realize that everyone is so strong that it’s hard to follow the wheels.
“Sometimes you struggle so much that you think you don’t belong here. Yet you have to realise everyone is struggling.
“Today I had to follow Kasper [Asgreen]. For Gino [Mäder], for everything. I needed to take his wheel and beat him on the line.”
The Slovenian explained the winning move of the stage, when Asgreen attacked on the Cote d’Ivory with just over 30 kilometres remaining.
“When he attacked, I chased him and tried to follow him all the way to the top of the climb. I contributed so we could stay away. When Ben [O'Connor] attacked, I knew he was going to do it because it was the only chance he had. I knew Kasper would react, then I pipped him on the line.”
It was a hard battle to form the initial breakaway, with a most teams keen to get a rider into the move on a day where everyone anticipated that the peloton would not want to chase over the lumpy terrain.
A group of nine riders, including Australian Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), got clear after 56 kilometres of skirmishing, but it was keep on a short leash, with particularly Uno-X in the peloton riding the race back together.
Through the intermediate sprint point, the race blew apart again, with the drift of sprinters to the front of the race seeing the green jersey of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) getting clear of the peloton and head off in pursuit of the breakaway. That prompted more riders to attack and try to bridge across, and by the end of the flurry of moves, there was a group of 36 riders at the head of the race.
Victor Campanaerts (Lotto-Dstiny) and Australian Simon Clarke (Israel Premier Tech) jumped away in attack, building up a lead that touched a minute before they began to be dragged back by a chase, then a series of attacks on the Category 3 climb of the Cote d’Ivory.
Clarke pulled up clutching at his hamstring, while Campanaerts didn’t fare much longer, as he was caught and dropped by an attack including Australian Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroen), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) and Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quickstep).
That sparked a series of attacks from the group behind, with the classy sprinters like Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) all trying to attack and bridge over to the front trio.
That surging did little to shut down the gap to the front three and it eventually pushed out 30 seconds, and the group behind had to commit to chasing, though it would prove to be ineffectual.
The trio at the front continued to work well until the final 700 metres, when they stopped rolling through. O’Connor laid off and launched a big attack, but Asgreen was able to match his acceleration, and then launch the sprint for the line.
It was a drag race until the final metre, with the bike throw to the line and the subsequent photo securing the victory for Mohoric, though it was a desperately close margin to Asgreen. O’Connor went across the line for third, while behind from the chasing group it was again Philipsen who mopped up the sprint for fourth.
The general classification remained unchanged post-stage, with the peloton sitting up to let the break contest the victory once the big group of 36 riders established an advantage.
