Advantage van Aert! The Belgian, wearing the green jersey, won the 8th stage of the Tour de France in a sprint disputed by the yellow jersey, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, on Saturday in Lausanne.
Pogacar, winner of the two previous stages, had to bow this time. But his third place earned him an extra 4 seconds and increased his lead in the general classification to 39 seconds over Dane Jonas Vingegaard.
For the Slovenian, double title holder, who had a quiet day, the threat came outside the race itself: one of his teammates, the Norwegian Vegard Stake Laengen, left the Tour because of a positive test at the Covid-19.
Because the Tour has been overtaken by the new wave of the coronavirus. In addition to Laengen, another rider, the Frenchman Geoffrey Bouchard, also had to leave for the same reason. Each team multiplies the detection tests to ward off the danger, but the threat is becoming clearer.
– A maxi-fall at the start of the stage –
“Covid is not my rival,” commented Pogacar after the finish. “It’s just a factor that affects things. My opponents are the Jumbos and the Ineos first.”
In this 186.3 kilometer stage, a more immediate danger reminded us of the risks incurred at all times. Nine kilometers after the start from Dole, a maxi-fall knocked down or delayed many runners (Pogacar, G. Thomas, Roglic, Quintana, Schachmann, Bardet, Gaudu, etc.). The peloton, on the initiative of the UAE yellow jersey team, slowed down to allow the latecomers to return.
The episode changed team strategies and deprived spectators of the usual battle at the start of the stage to take the breakaway. The trio, ahead from the 7th kilometer, took off and opened the road leading to Switzerland.
The Italian Mattia Cattaneo, the Briton Fred Wright and the Belgian Frederik Frison, who was then left behind, forced the peloton to drive at a good pace until the approach to Lausanne. Wright, the last to resist, was only overwhelmed on the finish line (4.8 km at 4.6%), 3500 meters from the line.
In the sprint, van Aert, locked up for a time, ended up finding the opening and outpacing the Australian Michael Matthews, already second Thursday at Longwy.
– Tied with Pogacar –
That day, van Aert embarked on a spectacular last stand to defend his yellow jersey, resembling a suicidal raid. The victory, therefore, went to Pogacar. Between them, the Belgian and the Slovenian have won half of the stages run so far, without leaving much space for their opponents.
“The team worked, I had to finish the job,” commented van Aert. “It was also an opportunity to score points for the green jersey”, the big goal of the Belgian superman who marked the spirits with his coup de force last Tuesday in Calais.
For the anecdote, van Aert equalized with Pogacar in the number of stage successes in the Tour (8). But the Belgian started a year earlier (in 2019) in the Tour compared to the Slovenian.
“I enjoyed the last climb,” commented the yellow jersey. “I love this kind of sprints. When I was little, I finished last. Now I can compete on hill finishes. On the flat, it’s more complicated”.
“Today I may have missed it a bit, van Aert overspeeded me,” added the Slovenian.
On the French side, Thibaut Pinot has accumulated misfortunes. Victim of a fall without apparent gravity in a climb, he was hit in the face a few moments later by the haversack held out by a team assistant.
“A complicated day”, then recognized the Franc-Comtois. “The feelings weren’t great, not much was going today”.
