The stage departed east from Arras, with the rolling start occurring before reaching Athies. The riders continued east to Arleux, and then southeast to the outskirts of Cambrai. The route then turned north and traversed sectors 15 and 14 of pavé, before an intermediate sprint at Wasnes-au-Bac. Sector 13 of pavé was crossed before Pecquencourt, and sectors 12, 11 and 10 as the riders headed northeast and then northwest to Orchies. Seven more sectors of pavé followed, as the route meandered north to the bonification point at Wannehain. The race then crossed the last two pavé sectors, before the finish in Roubaix. A five-man group broke away from the front of the peloton, from the opening of the stage. Minutes later, Richie Porte suffered a collarbone injury after crashing on asphalt, and was forced to abandon the race. José Joaquín Rojas also abandoned around the same time. The leading group grew to ten riders, and established a lead approaching three and a half minutes, before sector 15 of the dry and dusty pavé. By sector 10 at Beauvry, the shrunken peloton was being led by Team Sky and had closed the gap, to the leading group, down to about two minutes. At this point, Tejay van Garderen had fallen a minute behind the peloton. Van Garderen crashed and punctured a few minutes later, and ended losing five minutes at the finish. This was one of multiple crashes or punctures for van Garderen and was the third and final time he nearly caught back up to the race when he finally stopped pursuing and fell back to assist team leader Uran. At the start of sector 6 at Pont-Thibault, the leading group's advantage had been reduced to around thirty seconds, with Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Damien Gaudin attacking, at the head of the race. The original lead group was caught by the peloton, after sector 3 ended at Wannehain. Another lead group, including John Degenkolb, Greg Van Avermaert and Yves Lampaert, established itself before the start of sector 2 at Camphin-en-Pévèle. The new front group's lead extended to around forty-five seconds, by sector 1 at Willems, and held a lead to the finish. Most of the general classification contenders finished around half a minute behind, while Romain Bardet's incident-strewn ride finished a further few seconds back.