The 33-year-old's main duty is to set the likes of Gaviria up for sprints, and he was repaid on Saturday with free reign to get himself into the breakaway. With Quick-Step freed of the responsibility to pull on the front of the peloton – having been the prominent force on the previous flat stages – Richeze and his companions carved out an insurmountable advantage, and he finished the job from a group of three.
"It was a lovely gesture from the team. The staff, and all my teammates, they put their faith in me," said Richeze in his post-race press conference.
"I've felt good here, I've been doing a good job for my teammates, and the truth is I'm very grateful for the team for giving me this opportunity today. Last year they gave me the chance to be leader at the Tour de San Luis and here again, they've given me the freedom to go for a stage. I'm very grateful."
The pattern so far indicated that it was Boonen's turn to sprint, but the Belgian explained the tactics to Cyclingnews after crossing the line.
"We said 'listen, there are two ways we're going to do this – either we ride for the sprint again, or we try and get Max in the break'. From the first break that was serious, Max was in and they got a nice lead. With the heat, people tried to close it, but it wasn't a well organised group – some dead riders just trying to get to the finish.
"After all the work he has done for the team he deserved a shot at a win."
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After around 70km the stage was shortened due to the intense heat, and Richeze soon noticed some of his companions flagging. It was he who started to attack in a bid to shake off the dead wood, and three were left from the original 10.
"It was a big break, then with 60km to go I noticed the collaboration in the break wasn't good – lots not wanting to pull. I decided to try and attack and see what happened, and we ended up as three," he said.
"We started to think we could make it with about 20km to go as we still had a decent gap. We made a big effort, it was full gas all day."
Richeze will return to sprint train duties on Sunday's final stage, where Quick-Step will be looking to cap a perfect week. "We came to win stages and we’ve got four from six so far," added Richeze. It's impossible to get better than that."
Patrick is an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish) and a decade’s experience in digital sports media, largely within the world of cycling. He re-joined Cyclingnews as Deputy Editor in February 2026, having previously spent eight years on staff between 2015 and 2023. In between, he was Deputy Editor at GCN and spent 18 months working across the sports portfolio at Future before returning to the cycling press pack. Patrick works across Cyclingnews’ wide-ranging output, assisting the Editor in global content strategy, with a particular focus on shaping CN's news operation.
