Teuns's win came off the back of some concerted work by his BMC team, particularly team-mates Tejay van Garderen and Rohan Dennis. He rolled across the finish in fifth place, just enough to secure the victory.
“It was really a hard day, the guys rode hard from the very beginning, we took control from the start, but a lot of teams came to make it hard for us,” Teuns said.
“We had to wait until the final, and in the final, yes it was really hard, the pace was really high, but I knew I only had to follow the main GC guys.
“At one moment I was a little bit behind, and I was really lucky I still had a teammate, Tejay Van Garderen with me.
“It was really incredible, what he did to bring me back. And in the final climb, I just knew I needed to go two kilometres full gas, on the limit and over the limit to keep the jersey and that's what I did.
“It's an amazing feeling to win the race. I had a great week in Wallonia last week but this is a higher level it’s an incredible week for me and it's a big victory for me to win a world tour GC, it's a big step in my career.”
Majka finished third on the 132.5km stage from Bukovina Resort to Bukowina Tatrzanska behind Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) in second to pick up four bonus seconds.
But having started the day six seconds back from Tuens, the 2014 champion missed out on a second victory in his home Tour by just two seconds.
Poels finished third at three seconds thanks to his 10-second bonus for winning the stage, while Yates moved up to fifth thanks to his six-second bonus.
I tried, really I tried today, on the last climb. Maybe it was too late because it was not so steep, and the riders with me were not so many seconds behind. It's like a lottery, it's not easy. I tried three or four times, and in the end, I'm second by two seconds - Rafal Majka
Wout Poels finished ahead of Adam Yates. Source: ATCommunication/TDP
I felt really good at this race, I trained very well, I was struggling with a bit of a knee injury earlier this season so it's really nice to be back on a good level. - Wout Poels.
