I think it was very realistic. I'm pretty sure UAE was trying to set up just that, but when their pure doms couldn't make much of a difference they did not yet want to sacrifice their group of secondary leaders on a move that wasn't super likely to succeed anyway.This is a bit underwhelming, I guess, but on the other hand, it perhaps wasn't realistic to expect GC fireworks on the first stage.
It seems that Vingegaard is suffering a bit. Don't think it is dramatic enough that he would lose time at this point, but doesn't look all that comfortable [then again, who knows]