photo credits @ ASO
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) won stage 8 of the Tour de France today, beating Jasper Philipsen and Wout van Aert in an uphill finish in Limoges.
Despite today’s hilly route that favored the puncheurs over the sprinters, the peloton came together during the final 5 kilometers, morphing into a sprint finale that saw teams and their respective sprinters vying for position.
While Matteo Trentin and Christophe Laporte were fast at work delivering van Aert to the front, Mathieu van der Poel and Philpsen were quick to mark their move. But, it was Pedersen who found himself in the best position during the final kilometer.
Philipsen initially latched onto Pedersen’s wheel, but the Belgian rider was unable to match his Danish rival’s turn of speed during the final 100 meters, while Dylan Groenewegan saw his third place snatched up by a resurgent charge from van Aert.
However, the real drama of the day involved the abandonment of Mark Cavendish following a crash with 60 kilometers to go, which saw any hope of the British rider surpassing the record of 34 stage victories in the French Grand Tour that he holds jointing with Eddy Merckx evaporate.
Meanwhile, another crash towards the end of the stage saw Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) distanced, with the duo losing 47 seconds on their GC rivals.
“We didn’t know this morning if it would be a breakaway or sprint,” Pedersen said post-stage. “But it looked like that the sprinter teams didn’t want it to be a breakaway day so we stayed calm and, man the boys did a perfect lead-out day and even with the long sprint I still had the legs to finish it off.
“I tried a few times but I realized that they wouldn’t let us go so after that I just hung on and tried to save some energy. When we passed I knew I won, but oh man it was a long sprint and this uphill kick was really painful,” he continued. “I was this close to sitting down with 50 meters to go, but I think Jasper [Philipsen] had to do a pretty good sprint from behind and make it that close. [It was a] tough one, but it doesn’t matter if you win with two metres or one centimeter.”
Race Highlights
As the flag was dropped immediate attacks came from the likes of Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step), Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), but the escapees were soon reined in.
From there, other attacks flew, including a move by Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious), but to no avail.
A breakaway attempt finally stuck when Anthony Delaplace (Arkéa Samsic) and Tim Declercq (Soudal Quick-Step) rode clear, creating a small gap that was quickly joined by Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies).
The gap between the peloton and Delaplace, Declercq and Turgis eventually stretched to almost five minutes, with the former winning the intermediate sprint in Tocane-Saint-Apre.
Back in the peloton, Lidl-Trek, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Jumbo-Visma continued to lead the chase, while back up front Turgis claimed the King of the Mountains sprint at Côte de Champs-Romain.
With 30 kilometers to go, a fast approaching peloton prompted Turgis to go solo, a move that proved futile for the French rider.
As a strung-out peloton approached Limoges, Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Deceuninck were battling for position, with Christophe Laporte leading out van Aert, while van der Poel lead out Philipsen.
In the end however, it was Pedersen who had the strength to overhaul his rivals and seize the stage honors.
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