The 25-year-old Canadian attacked from the gun and was joined by local hero Michael Schär. The duo worked diligently, opening a gap of nearly five minutes with Zukowsky opening his bid to claim the Q36.5 Mountains Classification jersey by taking maximum points on the first KOM of the day in Chommle.

In his first WorldTour stage race of the season Zukowsky rode strongly at the front and capitalised on the two remaining KOMs before being reeled in by the chasing peloton with 20 km to go.

With his first objective for the day completed Zukowsky turned his focus to protecting his teammate Damien Howson who had to chase back to the peloton after a collective crash with 30 km to the finish. The incident affected over 10 riders, amongst them Mark Donovan and Gianluca Brambilla, the latter was sadly forced to abandon due to his injuries. 

The stages honours went to Biniam Grmay, while Zukowsky finished safely in the bunch, thereby securing the lead in the Q36.5 King of the Mountains Classification with a total of nine points and Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team’s first podium of the race.