Tadej Pogacar displayed his dominant form in the climbs of the Vosges, racing to his fourth victory of this year's Tour de France at Le Markstein.
The decisive attack from Pogacar occurred 1.6 kilometers from the summit of the final climb, the Col de Haag, and 7.5 kilometers from the finish line, leaving his rivals behind.
Jonas Vingegaard, Paul Seixas, and Florian Lipowitz were unable to match the acceleration of the Slovene, who now holds a lead of 4 minutes and 30 seconds ahead of Vingegaard.
Seixas matched Vingegaard on the rolling descent to the finish line before dropping the double winner during the final sprint to take the lead in the young rider classification.
The stage proved to be a major setback for Tom Pidcock, whose challenge came apart on the early slopes of the Col de Haag due to a relentless rhythm set by the Decathlon CMA CGM team.
Pidcock immediately lost ground as Pogacar and Vingegaard rode ahead, causing the Briton to tumble from second place overall earlier in the stage down to ninth.
Richard Carapaz, the last of the breakaway riders, was closing in on a stage win before Pogacar caught him with just over 8 kilometers remaining to foil the Ecuadorian rider.
The peloton faced extreme weather conditions, including a deluge that flooded the finish line at Le Markstein just as Pogacar's UAE Emirates XRG team closed down the day's breakaway.
The storm broke on the descent of the Col de Page, allowing Pogacar and his team to briefly distance Vingegaard on the slick bends before the Visma-Lease a bike team responded.
By the time the sun emerged, the advantage of a small five-rider group that included Ben Healy and Carapaz dwindled before being caught halfway up the final climb.
Speculation linking the Tour leader to competing in this year's Vuelta a España appears well founded, as the Spanish race remains the only Grand Tour he has yet to win.
The 2026 race stages its Gran Salida in Monaco, where Prince Albert commented on the potential participation of the current Tour de France leader.
"Pogacar said he would be at the start, so I hope that happens," Prince Albert said on Friday.
"If the prince said, it's a high chance," Pogacar said.
Luke Rowe, the lead sports director at the Decathlon team of Seixas, struck a pragmatic note regarding the possibility of thwarting the current race leader.
"It's nice to be optimistic, but sometimes you have to be realistic.
The realistic situation is that there is one guy substantially better than the rest of the GC leaders and the rest of the peloton," Rowe said.
The former Team Sky road captain also emphasized that those choosing to challenge Pogacar on the road should do so with extreme caution.
"How many times have we seen a guy follow Pogacar, explode and lose time?" Rowe said.
"If you're racing GC, then a lot of days it's about getting from A to B, being patient and conservative, which some people think is being boring, but that's what it takes to be on the podium in the Tour," Rowe added.
