at the race. His next race was the Tour de France, where he worked as a domestique for team leader Contador. He got his own chance on stage 15 where he went into the breakaway. He attacked his breakaway companions, just after the last major climb of the day, and managed to keep them behind all the way to the finish line, winning his first Tour de France stage win by 19 seconds, ahead of Diego Ulissi. Even though he had ridden two Grand Tours during the season, he started in Clásica de San Sebastián a week later and finished in third place, his third podium at the race – one for each podium placing. 2018 season After just missing out on a stage win at the Volta ao Algarve in February, Mollema took his first win of the season at the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali where he won stage 2 and finished 2nd overall. His next result came just a week after, where he was 7th overall at the Tour of the Basque Country. The classics campaign was mixed for Mollema as he only finished in the top 10 on one occasion at La Flèche Wallonne with a 6th place. At the Tour de France, Mollema was once again team leader and it looked promising after a great first week where he was one of the best general classification contenders. However already on the second mountain stage, Mollema cracked and switched his focus to go for stage wins. He was very close to winning a stage, but had to settle with a 3rd and 4th place as his best stage results. As he had done the previous years with great success, Mollema started Clásica de San Sebastián the week following the end of the Tour. He was the only one to match the pace of Julian Alaphilippe in the final, but lost the sprint for victory to Alaphilippe. Mollema chose to start the Vuelta a España, his second Grand Tour of the season. He showed he had form already on the fifth stage where he finished 2nd just behind Simon Clarke. Four days later he was once again in the breakaway and once again had to settle with a 2nd place. Ben King attacked just before the final climb, and was not chased instantly by his breakaway companions. Later on the climb it looked like King was