Belgian Wout van Aert won the eighth stage of the Tour de France which took place in Switzerland on Saturday, while the double defending champion, Tadej Pogacar, widened the gap at the top of the general classification.
Van Aert, who won the fourth stage and wore the yellow leader’s jersey for three days, beat Michael Matthews in the final sprint to the finish line.
Pogacar finished third, at the same time winning a bonus of a few decisive seconds, at the end of this 186 km event linking Dole, in eastern France, to Lausanne.
“I’m super happy,” said van Aert. I’m very happy that my team gave everything so that we could catch the breakaway, and then I had to top it off. »
“It was an ascent [finale] very difficult… the slope was very steep, so I had to fight to stay in the wheel of Pogacar and his teammates, but I knew that I had to wait patiently, in his wheel, for the final sprint which took place on a slightly easier part,” he added.
The Slovenian, who took the honors of the two previous stages, narrowly missed the hat trick. Pogacar nevertheless widened the gap to 39 seconds ahead of his main pursuer, Jonas Vingegaard, and 1:14 ahead of the winner of the Grande Boucle in 2018, Geraint Thomas.
“I wasn’t very far, but it was a fun day. I may have hesitated a little and van Aert took the opportunity to surprise me at full speed. It’s disappointing, but it’s still good to finish third,” said Pogacar, who is part of the UAE Team Emirates team.
Ontarian Michael Woods cracked the top-20, by virtue of his 17th place finish with the same time as the leading group. Quebecers Hugo Houle, Antoine Duchesne and Guillaume Boivin followed in 60th, 83rd and 120th place, in order.
In the cumulative standings, Woods is 30th at 7:56 behind Pogacar, while Houle, Duchesne and Boivin occupy 45th, 127th and 131st places, respectively.
A wind of concern blew through the peloton before the start of the event, when the organizers announced that Geoffrey Bouchard and Vegard Stake Laengen had tested positive for coronavirus. Several members of the technical teams have also obtained positive diagnoses for COVID-19.
American Kevin Vermaercke was forced to retire early in the race, following a nasty crash at the back of the peloton.
The peloton managed to regroup, but the chaos caused by Vermaercke gave the riders at the front an opportunity to launch a breakaway. Mattia Cattaneo, Fred Wright and Frederik Frison then built a cousin of almost three minutes in the lead, and the trio led the race for most of the stage.
They were eventually caught up on the final ascent, 3.5 km from the finish. Despite the steep slope, the peloton kept up the pace. Matthews then started the sprint, with Pogacar in his wheel, but van Aert sprang outside to cross the finish line first.
The ninth stage scheduled for Sunday will include four category passes – two of them will be particularly difficult – and will take place over 193 km between Aigle, in Switzerland, and the alpine ski resort Châtel Les Portes du Soleil.