The 133.5 km route from Maribor to Celje was expected to be the day the race tilted towards the general classification riders, with Planina na Pohorju and Celjska koča both offering the climbers room to test the sprinter in green. An early break of Erik Fetter, Paul Wright and Marcel Gladek shaped the opening, Wright taking maximum points over Planina na Pohorju, but Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe controlled the gap.

On the decisive Celjska koča climb Jan Tratnik drove the Red Bull pace and thinned the bunch, yet Pithie held his position alongside the GC men. Samuel Fernández García led over the summit ahead of Lipowitz and Jon Agirre, but the climb failed to produce the expected split and a group of around 40 reformed on the descent into Celje.

The finale briefly came alive when Unai Iribar attacked on the descent, Pithie himself chasing it down, before Red Bull tried one last disruption inside the final kilometre with Mattia Cattaneo. Cattaneo was reeled in and Pithie still had the legs to finish the job, beating Stefano Oldani and Iván Cobo to take his second win and tighten his grip on the race before the queen stage.

Laurence Pithie strengthened his overall lead with the stage win and bonus seconds, having survived the day's climbs without losing time. Behind him the GC was still bunched, with teammates Florian Lipowitz and Giulio Pellizzari and Bahrain's Jakob Omrzel all comfortably placed and saving their efforts for stage 4's mountain showdown to Kranjska Gora — the stage everyone expected to decide the race.