Jonathan Milan wins fast and furious sprint on Tour de France stage 8
It was a very quiet day at the Tour de France for the most part, building up to an explosive action packed final few kilometres for a sprint finish in Laval.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) won stage 8 of the Tour de France in a sprint finish in Laval. Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) sprinted into second place while Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) came home in third.
Milan proved to be the strongest in an uphill drag to the finish line in Laval, launching his sprint from the wheel of Groves and holding off an impressive Van Aert in second to take his first Tour stage win. It marks a major boost also for the Italian in his hunt for the points classification as he moves back into leadership of the green jersey with a 36-point lead.
Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), one of the pre-stage favourites, suffered an untimely mechanical with 12km remaining but returned to the bunch with 9km to go. The effort ultimately cost the European champion in the finale.
It wasn't a particularly memorable day on the Tour de France for the most part, but that will not be of concern to the general classification contenders, most notably Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who finished safely inside the peloton to retain his race lead of 54 seconds over Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and 1:11 over Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) in third. Jonas Vingegaard remains in fourth at 1:17.
After an all-action first week of the Tour de France, the peloton collectively agreed to take things ‘easy’ at the start of stage 8. There was no intent from anyone to go in a breakaway, which would be doomed on the first of two consecutive stages for the sprinters.
At the Intermediate sprint in Vitré with 85.9km remaining, Milan got the better of Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) to take maximum points in his quest to reclaim the lead in the points classification from Tadej Pogačar.
The TotalEnergies duo of Mathieu Burgaudeau and Matteo Vercher sparked some action on the stage when they attacked from the peloton with 80 kilometres remaining, to form the first breakaway of the stage.
Marc Soler suffered a crash with 46km remaining, but Pogačar’s Spanish teammate was quickly up and running and returned to the peloton.
With around 30 kilometres remaining, the fight for position in the bunch started to increase with a few gusts of wind causing some tension, and around the 20km mark, the yellow jersey was notably further back in the peloton than the other key general classification riders such as Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).
The TotalEnergies duo gap breached the one-minute margin with just over 21km remaining, the biggest it had been throughout the entire stage, illustrating that the two French teammates were working well with one another, but it still remained mission impossible.
Einer Rubio (Movistar) and Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty) were involved in a crash with just under 19 kilometres remaining. The big German, Rutsch, came off worse in the crash, but was eventually able to remount and ride, determined to continue the race despite concussion checks.
On the only categorised climb of the day, Côte de Nuillé-sur-Vicoin, Burgaudeau took the single point towards the mountains classification. With 12.6km remaining, Vercher ran out of steam, leaving Burgaudeau solo up front, but the bunch swept him up with little under 10 kilometres to the finish.
Merlier suffered an untimely mechanical with 12.5km remaining, Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) crashed on a roundabout with 12 km remaining, and Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ) was also a victim of a mechanical with just over 10 km remaining.
There were no significant crashes before the 5km safety zone, meaning that the general classification riders all received the same time as the stage winner.
Alpecin-Deceuninck were in a strong position, leading the front of the peloton from around 5km until the 2km mark, where Bahrain-Victorious and Lidl-Trek moved towards the front.
On a drag with 3.5km remaining, Jasper Stuyven helped Milan move up towards the front of the peloton. Groves lost a few positions when he came into contact with Jonathan Milan around a corner inside 2km from the finish, but it could have been worse.
Under the flamme rouge, Lidl-Trek had two riders on the front, before Matteo Trentin (Tudor) hit the front with Alberto Dainese on the wheel, before Groupama-FDJ hit the front. Van der Poel surged to the front with 500 metres remaining with Groves on his wheel, and Milan had to quickly react to get on the Australian’s wheel.
The sprint was launched, with Milan powering clear whilst Groves faded, and Van Aert in the slipstream of the Italian. However, nobody was able to come around the Lidl-Trek rider who claimed his first stage win on his Tour de France debut with Van Aert and Groves rounding out the stage podium.
