Jonathan Milan won his first stage of the Tour de France on the eighth day after a strong, uphill sprint in Laval on Saturday.
The Lidl-Trek rider was untouchable in the the final, putting a bike length into second placed Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), while Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was third.
In what was a messy sprint, Milan’s team came to the front in strength late on, delivering the Italian perfectly. Working for Groves, Mathieu van der Poel seemed to run out of legs during his lead out, meaning Groves was forced to open his sprint early. This brought out the other sprinters, but Milan was by far the strongest.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished in the bunch and remains in the yellow jersey.
The stage was a relatively benign one, ridden at 44.6kmh, significantly slower that the much lumpier seventh stage, and it was not until the peloton reached the outskirts of the final town that things began to heat up, sprinters’ leadouts forming.
Groves’s Alpecin-Deceuninck team seemed to boss the final occupying the road while other teams came and went. Lidl-Trek were patient, though, only coming to the front once the 180º roundabout was out of the way. On the final roundabout Groves tried to slide inside Milan, pushing the Italian out wide, but running even wider himself. In the final kilometre Groves had to work hard to regain position, but he, and Van der Poel, had done too much to take the sprint.
For MIlan, it was a first stage win in his first Tour.
“I still don’t understand what we did,” Milan said. “We came with some expectations and some dreams, but to bring them home they’re two different things. I was confident in the team, in the third one we were pretty close to the victory, but today we were really focused.
“My guys did an amazing job, it was a really tough final, a bit stressful, but it was dragging up so much in the last kilometre and a half, and I knew I had to wait as long as I could, but I like these kinds of finals, I’m really happy for the work that we did, we really deserve it.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
After Thursday’s time trial and a brace of tough, gnarly road stages, Saturday’s stage looked set to be one for the sprinters. The 171.4km stage between Saint-Méen-le-Grand and Laval contained just one classified climb, the fourth category Côte de Nuillé-sur-Vicoin coming with just over 16km to go, but not posing too many questions for the sprinters. However, with the final 1,800m rising steadily to the finish line, it was not a simple sprint.
The drop of the flag signified little more than the end of the neutralised section, the riders happy to stay together, spread across the road. With a few kilometres done, the LIdl-Trek team of Jonathan Milan and Intermarché-Wanty squad of Biniam Girmay took to the front, setting the pace for their leaders.
The race stayed like this, the sprinter’s teams taking responsibility for pacing, while the rest of the bunch sat back, some riders taking the chance to compare notes with those from other teams.
The intermediate sprint at Vitré came with 86km to go, Milan, wearing Pogačar’s green jersey going long and winning maximum points. Over the top Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) briefly tried to get away, but the sprinter’s teams closed the gap and he shrunk back into the peloton.
TotalEnergies were not done, though, Burgaudeau having another go, this time taking Mattéo Vercher, up the road on stage one, with him, the two men riding a two-up time trial and building a small advantage. The two Frenchmen were never allowed much space though, dangling off the front, their lead fluctuating between 40 and 50 seconds, the peloton intent on a bunch kick.
Oddly, the breakaway was finally allowed some leeway as the race wore on, the TotalEnergies pair entering the closing 20km with as much as 1.10. Their freedom was short-lived, though. With 13km to go and the lead down to 30 seconds, Vercher put in one last big effort before Burgaudeau headed on alone, only to be caught four kilometres later.
Meanwhile, two of the day’s favourites, Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ) and Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) suffered mechanicals, though Merlier was soon back in.
The run into the finish line was far from technical, the riders dropping down a small descent and dealing with a 180º turn round a roundabout, before two more roundabouts preceding a long, gently curving, but uphill finish straight.
Sunday’s ninth stage sees the race what may well prove to be a more simple stage, with no classified climbs along the 174.1km route between Chinon and Châteauroux, scene of Mark Cavendish’s first career stage win in 2008.
RESULTS
TOUR DE FRANCE, STAGE 8, SAINT-MÉEN-LE-GRAND > LAVAL (ESPACE MAYENNE) (174.1KM)
1. Jonathan Milan (Ita) Lidl-Trek, in 3:50:26
2. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike
3. Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin Deceuninck
4. Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Israel-Premier Tech
5. Arnaud De Lie (Bel) Lotto
6. Tobias Lund Andersen (Den) Picnic-PostNL
7. Bryan Coquard (Fra) Cofidis
8. Alberto Dainese (Ita) Tudor Pro Cycling
9. Vincenzo Albanese (Ita) EF Education-EasyPost
10. Stian Fredheim (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, all at same time
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 8
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirate-XRG, in 29:48:30
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +54s
3. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels, +1:11
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:17
5. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, +1:29
6. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:34
7. Oscar Onley (GBr) Picnic PostNL, +2:49
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +3:02
9. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +3:06
10. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +3:43
