With 16 kilometres to go in the 189.5km stage from Sisteron to La Mure the Slovenian broke away from the peloton, and he was able to able to hold off attacks to claim victory by 14 seconds.
Chris Froome maintained his overall lead of the race as he finished within the peloton 17 seconds behind Spilak, while Cannondale’s Alessandro De Marchi took the lead in the King of the Mountains classification after winning five of the six climbs in the stage.
Wilco Kelderman’s late sprint to catch Spilak saw him claim second place on the stage with Adam Yates (Orica), and Kelderman’s (Belkin) slight advantage over the peloton saw him join Alberto Contador in second place overall behind Froome.
In the early stages the peloton remained together until nine riders eventually broke away after 44km, and slowly opened up a healthy lead.
De Marchi was part of that group and benefitted in the first five climbs, and with 45km to go the leading riders had a three minute lead on the chasing pack.
Contador did his best to catch up to the breakaway after being put into a good position by his Tinkoff-Saxo team-mates, and at that stage Froome’s overall lead looked in danger.
However, his Team Sky colleague Richie Porte helped him reel the leaders in and in the closing stages it was only Spilak out on his own at the front.
He was not going to be caught, but Froome had done enough to keep his lead with three stages of the race remaining.
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