Van Avermaet out-sprinted Tom Van Asbroeck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Jean-Pierre Drucker (Accent Jobs-Wanty) while teammate Daniel Oss finished fourth. It was Van Avermaet's first win since his victory at Paris Tours in October of 2011 and his fourth career stage win in six participations in the race he won overall in 2011.

"I'm really happy that I finally got a win," Van Avermaet said. "I have had some good results, but for a rider, the important one is to win. I tried to stay quiet and wait for my chance and then give it everything in the sprint."

The final 30 kilometres of the 168.5km race saw the BMC Racing Team ride aggressively, with Taylor Phinney, Oss, Van Avermaet and Yannick Eijssen all launching attacks. Eijssen's attack, which was marked by Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Pieter Serry, was most productive. The pair got away with 18km to go and built a lead of 37 seconds before being caught with 5km to go.

"Yannick's move really took the pressure off of us," BMC Racing Team Assistant Director Jackson Stewart said. "Everyone really played their role today, with Sebastian Lander and Klaas Lodewyck doing a lot of work to help bring back a three-man breakaway that had a pretty good lead (six minutes) at one point," Stewart said.

Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha Team) kept the overall lead with two days to go while Van Avermaet is fourth overall, 22 seconds back.