Key Takeaways: Tour de France Stage 8

Breaking down a thrilling uphill sprint in Lausanne & taking stock of the GC picture before we head into the Alps

Wout van Aert displayed a jaw-dropping burst of speed to blow by Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogačar and grab his second stage win at this year’s Tour de France in the stunningly picturesque Swiss city of Lausanne.

While the stage seemed perfect for a massive breakaway to roll away and contest the win, an early crash that held up key GC contenders, including the race leader, slowed the peloton and allowed the early three-rider breakaway to ride clear. This put a pause in the action as Team BikeExchange and Jumbo-Visma set pace to keep the gap in check before the leaders hit the final, 5km-long climb at an extremely high speed that forced the GC contenders to hold on for dear life while Pogačar locked horns with Van Aert and Matthews in the fight for the stage win.

There were no time gaps of significance since every top GC contender was able to finish on the same time as the stage winners, but Pogačar was able to extend his lead over the rest by four seconds due to picking up a small time bonus for his third-place finish.

Stage Top 3:
Wout van Aert +0
Michael Matthews +0
Tadej Pogačar +0

GC Top Ten:
1) Tadej Pogačar +0
2) Jonas Vingegaard +39
3) Geraint Thomas +1’14
4) Adam Yates +1’22
5) David Gaudu +1’35
6) Romain Bardet +1’36
7) Tom Pidcock +1’39
8) Neilson Powless +1’41
9) Enric Mas +1’47
10) Dani Martinez +1’59

Stage 8 Notebook:

179km: A few kilometers into the stage, a three-man group rolls off the front. We can see there isn’t much of a response, or protest, from the group behind. After such a difficult opening week, there likely isn’t much of an appetite for another hard start.

177km: And when riders do attempt to bridge, we can see Jumbo riders getting on their wheels, which kills the groups momentum when they don’t pull through and has the effect of de-incentivizes the others since even if they do bridge successfully, they will have to bring a Jumbo rider along for a free ride. These are perfectly executed bike racing 101 tactics.

174km: Shortly after, a crash right in the middle of the peloton brings down multiple GC riders, including Tadej Pogacar (who falls surprisingly softly).

173km: Pogacar gets back on and has his UAE teammates set pace to bring him back to the front (with help from their team car).

166km: Up front, the pace somewhat shockingly remains high as riders like Magnus Cort and Quinn Simmons try to reel in the breakaway (the peloton is not supposed to keep the pace on if the Yellow Jersey crashes, but these old rules seem to be observed less and less). UAE and Ineos, both with GC leaders stuck off the back, go to the front while George Bennett instructs them to fan out across the road to block others from attacking and slow things down.

33km: The rest of the stage sees Jumbo and BikeExchange keep the pace high enough that the breakaway can’t pull out a big enough of a gap to have a chance of making it. This is to give Michael Matthews and Wout van Aert a chance of winning the stage but has the undesired effect of giving Pogacar and his weakened UAE team a free ride.

4.3km: As the final climb starts, Pogacar’s UAE team is out of position, which leaves him isolated, but he seems completely unbothered and decides to simply ride the entire climb at the front.

3.6km: Rafał Majka from UAE finally gets to the front to leadout his team leader while Vlasov’s Bora team sets an extremely high pace on the front. It is notable that while Jonas Vingegaard and Pogacar are right at the front, Geraint Thomas, Adam Yates, and Primoz Roglic are struggling deep in the pack behind.

2.9km: The pace in the Bora-led Pogacar group is so high at times that they actually split off the front and Wout van Aert is forced to bridge up.

1.3km: Brandon McNulty joins Majka at the front and we have Pogacar (Yellow), Van Aert (Green), Jonas Vingegaard (yellow helmet), and Michael Matthews (blue) right on their wheels.

150m: Matthews, trying to avoid being caught too far back like on stage 6, launches his sprint early, with Pogacar on his wheel and Van Aert training behind and slightly out of position.

Finish: Van Aert recovers from being boxed in, and briefly being forced to coast around some traffic, to explode by Matthews for the stage win.

Key Takeaways: