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Tour Stage 8 Report: The stage to the home of the Olympic Committee, Lausanne, was a bit calmer until the final 10 kilometres. Fred Wright was the last man of the break to be caught on the final climb of the Côte du Stade Olympique. In the uphill sprint it was Wout van Aert who took the win ahead of Michael Matthews and the yellow jersey of Tadej Pogačar.
The final K
Wout van Aert – Just too strong at the finish
Wout van Aert won the eighth stage in the Tour de France. The Belgian defeated Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogačar on the tricky finish in Lausanne. Thanks to the bonus seconds at the finish, Pogačar strengthens his lead in the general classification and now has 39 seconds on Jonas Vingegaard.
Stage 8 would suit Mathieu van der Poel, but his present form isn’t what it should be
The Route:
Stage 8 gives a taste of the Olympic Games as the uphill finish in Lausanne, the home of the International Olympic Committee, called Côte du Stade Olympique comes at the end of a 4.8km long climb with an average gradient of 4.6%. It’s a perfect day for a breakaway from far out. After he won two stages in a row and extended his lead in the overall ranking, Tadej Pogačar will be eager to let a group go, providing that it doesn’t include any rider who is within five minutes down on GC. It’ll be hard to make the right move as a large portion of the peloton will see this stage as a huge opportunity to ride for a glory in a race already dominated by the defending champion. For once, possibly, for Pogačar the most important thing is not winning but taking part… although it’s another kind of uphill finish.
Stage 8 profile
After Denmark, France and Belgium, the Tour de France moved to the fourth country – Switzerland. From Dole in France the peloton headed for the Swiss city of Lausanne. There were four short climbs of between three and five kilometres on the route. About 50 kilometres from the finish, the riders crossed the top of the penultimate climb. The finish line was on the Côte du Stade Olympique. This 4.8 kilometre climb ramped up at 12% with 2 kilometres to go. A short descent halfway up the hill brought the average to 4.6%.
Pinot fans at the start
AG2R Citroën had different jerseys on at the start
The peloton left Dole with 170 riders, two riders down. Vegard Stake Laengen, from the team of yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogačar, and Geoffrey Bouchard both left the race after positive covid tests. The speed was high from the starting gun, the pace had picked up due to several attacks by riders who wanted to get into the break of the day.
The leaders at the start
Second day of 2022 in yellow for Tadej Pogačar
Initially a group of four, including KOM Magnus Cort managed to escape the pack, but they were not given any space. Later, Mattia Cattaneo (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Frederik Frison (Lotto Soudal) managed to get away. When they were about 20 seconds ahead, there was a massive crash in the peloton. The biggest victim was Kevin Vermaerke, who had to abandon. Nairo Quintana, Maximilian Schachmann, Ben O’Connor and overall leader, Tadej Pogačar, also fell.
Magnus Cort tried to get in the break again, but missed it
The break of the day: Mattia Cattaneo (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Frederik Frison (Lotto Soudal) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious)
Pogačar was soon able to return to the peloton due to the help of his teammates, but also due to the peloton waiting. Taco van der Hoorn and Quin Simmons still wanted to cross to the three leaders, but they were eventually shut down. Cattaneo, Wright and Frison took a maximum lead of 3:30. Cattaneo was close in the overall standings. The Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider started the day in 32nd place, 2:30 behind Pogačar.
Happy young fans on the road to Lausanne
The peloton were hoping for an easier day
In the peloton it was not UAE Team Emirates that chased. Jumbo-Visma and BikeExchange-Jayco were the teams setting the pace. Jumbo also prepared for the intermediate sprint, where green jersey wearer Wout van Aert was narrowly beaten by Jasper Philipsen. The Belgian was just ahead of Fabio Jakobsen, who crossed the line in fourth after Christophe Laporte. There was no battle for the KOM points in the leading group. The three just rode across the summits of the Côte du Marechet and Côte des Rousses without a fight.
Maybe not easier, but a less stressful stage
Nathan Van Hooydonck was on the front for most of the day
With 70 kilometres to go, the trio still had more than a 1 minute lead. At that point they decided to step up the speed and stretch their lead to 2 minutes. This was too much for Frederik Frison and with 60 kilometres to go he was dropped. Wright and Cattaneo crossed the top of the Col de Petrá Félix together, the last categorised climb before the final.
Another day for Van Aert? Has Roglič recovered?
Thibaut Pinot had some bad luck on the climb. First he crashed and after he returned to the bunch, he was accidentally punched in the face by a Trek-Segafredo soigneur who was trying to hand up a feed bag to one of his riders, but hit Pinot. The Frenchman was able to continue after a short delay.
It wasn’t to be Frederik Frison’s day as he was dropped from the break
Just Cattaneo and Wright left off the front
On the descent the pace in the peloton picked up, quickly closing on Cattaneo and Wright. Wright held out the longest, but the Briton was also passed by the peloton in the first part of the final climb. That bunch was led by Mathieu van der Poel for a while, he sacrificed himself for Jasper Philipsen.
Then Wright was on his own
Once on the climb there was an attack from Warren Barguil, but without success. Later, BORA-hansgrohe accelerated. Lennard Kämna, who just missed the win yesterday, set the pace. At 1.5 kilometres from the finish, Rafal Majka took the front for Pogačar. In the end, no one tried to attack and we were going to see a sprint. Wout van Aert was blocked in, but he eventually weaved through other rider to catch and pass Michael Matthews. The Australian finished second again, ahead of Tadej Pogačar in third.
It looked like Van Aert was blocked in, but…
Stage winner and points leader, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma): “I’m of course super happy with today’s win. For the green jersey, there many points up for grab today and it was a good opportunity to take more lead over my competitors. I want to thank my team for chasing down the breakaway. It was a really tough climb at the end. I had to fight to stay in wheel of Pogačar and his team mates. I knew it was a bit flatter for the sprint, so it would suit me. It’s something extra to win in the Olympic city, but just winning another Tour de France stage is great.”
Van Aert came through for the big finish
Overall leader and 3rd on the stage, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “I’m a bit disappointed to not win today because I was not far away. It was a very long and hot day with a lot of dangerous points. I kind of liked the last climb. I hesitated a bit in the last sprint and Van Aert passed me super fast, but the third place is still great. I’ve always liked sprinting. When I was younger I was the smallest so I always finished last in sprints, but now in a 5km long climb I can do good in sprinting, although not good enough to beat Michael Matthews and Wout van Aert. It wasn’t the plan to win today but since BikeExchange and Jumbo-Visma wanted to catch the breakaway, then it became another opportunity for us to go for the win so we tried. In the early crash, I hit the ground but not too much. It was nothing bad for me, I came back quickly.”
More yellow for Tadej Pogačar
# All the Tour news in EUROTRASH and the ‘Rest Day Round Up’ on Monday. #
Tour de France Stage 8 Result:
1. Wout van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma in 4:13:06
2. Michael Matthews (Aus) BikeExchange-Jayco
3. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
4. Andreas Kron (Den) Lotto Soudal
5. Alberto Bettiol (Ita) EF Education-EasyPost
6. Aleksandr Vlasov (-) BORA-hansgrohe
7. Benjamin Thomas (Fra) Cofidis
8. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma
9. Bob Jungels AG2R Citroën
10. Thomas Pidcock (GB) INEOS Grenadiers.
Tour de France Overall After Stage 8:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates at 28:56:16
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma at 0:39
3. Geraint Thomas (GB) INEOS Grenadiers at 1:14
4. Adam Yates (GB) INEOS Grenadiers at 1:22
5. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 1:35
6. Romain Bardet (Fra) DSM at 1:36
7. Thomas Pidcock (GB) INEOS Grenadiers at 1:39
8. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-EasyPost at 1:41
9. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar at 1:47
10. Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col) INEOS Grenadiers at 1:59.
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