The Dolomite queen stage — 151 km from Feltre over the Passo Duran, Forcella Staulanza, the Passo Giau (Cima Coppi, 2,305 m) and Passo Falzarego before the final ramp to Piani di Pezzè — split apart from the first climb. A huge move went clear on the Passo Duran, including Sepp Kuss, Giulio Ciccone, Einer Rubio, Damiano Caruso, Derek Gee-West, Giulio Pellizzari, Michael Storer, Enric Mas and Alberto Bettiol, cresting nearly a minute ahead of the chasers and two up on the peloton.
Ciccone made the day his mountains-classification statement: he won the points sprints on the Duran and Forcella Staulanza, then took the Cima Coppi atop the Passo Giau — 50 mountain points that lifted him past Jonas Vingegaard into the King of the Mountains jersey. On the Falzarego, Gee-West's group built a three-minute cushion that put the Canadian virtually onto the GC podium, and he grabbed six bonus seconds on the climb's mid-point sprint.
Over the top, Ciccone and Rubio led onto the descent before the final climb to Piani di Pezzè (4.9 km at 9.8%). Kuss and Pellizzari opened the chase from the foot of the climb; Kuss accelerated clear, caught Ciccone with 2.2 km to go, and rode straight past to a solo win — Gee-West holding on for second at +0:13.
Behind, the GC group lit up: Felix Gall attacked and only Vingegaard and Hindley could go with him. Hindley was briefly dropped but Pellizzari sat up to pace his Red Bull teammate back. Gall and Vingegaard crossed together at +0:39, Hindley four seconds later — enough for the Australian to leapfrog Thymen Arensman, who lost more than a minute, into third overall.