The Australian etched out a spot in the break of the day with Mitchelton-Scott team mate and compatriot Mathew Hayman plus Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Wanty-Group Gobert), Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step Floors) and Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie).
The leaders were caught with 16.5km from the finish after the peloton, motivated by stage winner Arnaud Demare's team Groupama-FDJ, controlled the time gap at around two minutes.
His efforts driving the break earned him the prize but Durbridge was gracious.
"I feel like this should've gone to five guys today but can't do that so," he told SBS' Sophie Smith after the stage.
"All the guys in the breakaway were super strong. We played a little bit of cat and mouse with the peloton. Tried to sort of go easy, go hard but in the end we gambled and we lost but gave it a good shot."
Durbridge also revealed his team's plans for tomorrow's tough mountainous stage.
"I think we can try and put Adam (Yates) and Mikel (Nieve) in the break. I think more the better as we saw today we had options. Fingers crossed we can get both of them in the breakaway. And we won't stop until we do."
Earlier in the stage, Durbo had a run-in with a dog, its owner clearly not getting the memo about using leashes at a bike race.
