Wout van Aert takes another Tour de France stage as Pogacar extends lead

Wout van Aert of Belgium took his second stage win in the Tour de France, sprinting to victory for Jumbo-Visma in the eighth stage from Dole to Lausanne, after a two-man breakaway was reeled in up by the chasing peloton as the race climbed through the streets of the Olympic capital

Fred Wright dropped his breakaway companion Mattia Cattaneo (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) with 7km to go, but as the stage hit the final steep climb to the finish, Wright of Bahrain Victorious was finally reeled in with 3km to go.

In the uphill finaleon the Côte du Stade Olympique category 3 climb , Van Aert waited and waited following wheels and then launched a blistering sprint, coming round Michael Mathews and Pogacar to win the stage in the Green jersey.

Pogacar extended his lead to 39s over his rivals with bonus points for finishing third.

After an opening week uncharacteristically lacking in major crashes, the second weekend opened with plenty, including a mass fall after only 10km of racing, that created chaotic scenes. Although all of the major favourites came down, including UAE Team Emirates’ race leader, Tadej Pogacar, only two riders abandoned in the aftermath, Kevin Vermaerke of DSM and Astana Qazaqstan’s Gianni Moscon.

But perhaps the most hapless rider of the day was Groupama-FDJ’s Thibaut Pinot, who crashed on the descent of the Col de Pétra Félix only to then be smacked in the face by the arm of a Trek-Segafredo team helper passing drinks to his team’s riders from the roadside. After a long and lonely chase, the Frenchman was able to make his way through the convoy of team cars and rejoin the rear of the peloton. There was no significant change in the overall standings.

Stage 9 on Sunday is the first day in the Alps with the race re-entering the borders of France, but the stage does take place mostly within the Swiss borders and features four categorised climbs before an uphill kick to the line in Châtel.

VIDEO: 2022 Tour de France Stage 8 Highlights

2022 Tour de France Stage 8 Top 10

1 BEL Wout van Aert Jumbo-Visma 04:13:06
2 AUS Michael Matthews Team BikeExchange-Jayco + 00
3 SLO Tadej Pogacar UAE Team Emirates + 00
4 DEN Andreas Kron Lotto Soudal + 00
5 ITA Alberto Bettiol EF Education-EasyPost + 00
6 RUS Aleksandr Vlasov BORA-hansgrohe + 00
7 FRA Benjamin Thomas Cofidis + 00
8 DEN Jonas Vingegaard Jumbo-Visma + 00
9 LUX Bob Jungels AG2R Citroën Team + 00
10 GBR Tom Pidcock INEOS Grenadiers + 00

2022 Tour de France GC after Stage 8

01 SLO Tadej Pogacar UAE Team Emirates 28:56:16
02 DEN Jonas Vingegaard Jumbo-Visma + 39
03 GBR Geraint Thomas INEOS Grenadiers + 01:14
04 GBR Adam Yates INEOS Grenadiers + 01:22
05 FRA David Gaudu Groupama-FDJ + 01:35
06 FRA Romain Bardet Team DSM + 01:36
07 GBR Tom Pidcock INEOS Grenadiers + 01:39
08 USA Neilson Powless EF Education-EasyPost + 01:41
09 ESP Enric Mas Movistar Team + 01:47
10 COL Daniel Martinez INEOS Grenadiers + 01:59