Stage six was a flat stage without a surviving breakaway meaning it was decided in a bunch finish, which was won by Hoste yet again, who this time edged out Eddy Planckaert and Gilbert Glaus at the finish line. Stage seven was an individual time trial which would provide a bit of clarity as to who the major contenders were going to be and it was won by Laurent Fignon. Two time Green Jersey winner Sean Kelly finished in 2nd while Hinault, who typically throughout his career dominated the ITT’s, finished in 3rd place 0:49 slower than Fignon. Other potential contenders including Roche finished at +1:07, Gerard Veldscholten at +1:11, the Australian Phil Anderson at +1:24 and the very strong Italian rider who was often among the contenders for the Giro Roberto Visentini finished at +1:53 behind. The three breakaway riders from stage five still made up the top three but as far as the General Classification was concerned, Fignon was the highest placed contender, with Anderson, Hinault, Veldscholten, LeMond, Visentini and Roche all within 3:00 of him. Stage eight was won by Pascal Jules who beat Ludo Peeters and Bruno Leali to the finish by nine seconds. Stage nine in this Tour was notable because it was 338 km long. This was the longest stage included in the race since the 1967 Tour de France and there has not been a stage longer than this since 1984. The last time a Tour stage was over 300 km was during the 1990 edition, the last time a stage was longer than 250 km was during the 2000 Tour and the last time a stage approached 250 km was in 2013 when there was a stage that was 243 km long which was not even a flat stage, but rather a stage that included Mont Ventoux. Stage 9 was won by Jan Raas and this would be the 10th and final stage win of his impressive career. The riders were on their bikes for nearly ten straight hours during this stage.