Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) has made up for his team’s all-day effort with a second win on stage 8, extending his lead with the green jersey to the Tour de France.
An early accident may have been a key factor in the script for the outcome of Stage 8, including the involvement of the yellow jersey and the subsequent chase that closed out the moves needed to create a big, successful break. With only three men on the road, BikeExchange-Jayco did the lion’s share of the job for Michael Matthews and Jumbo-Visma was also clearly interested in the glory of the stage, so the escape seemed to hide in the nothing.
The difference had narrowed around the minute when the race entered Switzerland, but when Frederik Frison (Lotto Soudal) said so and returned to the peloton where the pace had slowed briefly, the remaining leaders Mattia Cattaneo (Quick -Step Alpha). Vinyl) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) lowered the hammer and their lead was regained in two minutes.
After the Col de Pétra Félix of fourth category, about 53 km from home, it was a descent almost to the foot of the stepped ascent until the arrival in Lausanne. The powerful Cat.3 Côte du Stade Olympique is misleading with its 4.5% drop in 4.9 kilometers, but drops to half before the final launcher with a maximum grade of more than 12%.
With 15km to go, the breakaway lasted about 45 seconds while the platoon was put into training for the final approach. Fred Wright was the last man standing, only caught 3.5km from the line by a platoon preparing for a very small sprint between climbers and punchers.
Matthews headed the ball into the back of the net with Tadej Pogačar at the helm, but Van Aert was ready to jump. He went from looking fit to climbing to the front and winning by a long with the green shirt.
After his team worked hard all day, Matthews held on to another second place and Pogačar took an extra four seconds with the third.
Tour de France (2.UWT) Dole → Lausanne