[themaclad]

Out yesterday watched it on catch up, safe to say it was a tough day for the commentators, as all of sod happened

Italy's Jonathan Milan won stage eight of the Tour de France following a bunch sprint.

Lidl Trek's Milan beat Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike on the flat 171.4km stage into Laval's Espace Mayenne.

Milan, 24, waited patiently in the wheels of Mathieu van der Poel and Kaden Groves, both of Alpecin-Deceuninck, in the final 200 metres before using his immense power to launch himself towards the line - with only Van Aert able to cling on behind.

Australian Groves finished third.

It was a quiet stage for the contenders for the overall leader's yellow jersey, which was retained by defending champion Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who leads Belgium's Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-Quick Step by 54 seconds.

Slovenian Pogacar's main rival for yellow, alongside Evenepoel, is two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike, who currently sits one minute 17 seconds down in fourth in the general classification.

The fight for the green points jersey - usually won by a sprinter - now sees Milan taking over the lead with 192 points.

Pogacar is second on 156, after the 26-year-old's points success in his two stage victories so far.

Last year's green jersey winner Biniam Girmay of Eritrea is third on 124 points.

"I still don't understand what we did," said Milan afterwards. "There were expectations, dreams to bring it home.

"I was confident with the team. It was a bit stressful - I knew I had to wait as long as I could. We really deserve it."

After what was quiet stage, until the sprint, in 30C (86F) heat, save for a few crashes on the way, the three-week race will finally begin to move south with stage nine's flat 174km sprint from Chinon to Chateauroux.

Chateauroux is unofficially known as 'Cavendish City' after Mark Cavendish's three wins there during his record-breaking career in which the sprinter won 35 Tour de France stages - the final one being last year before retiring.


Stage eight results

Jonathan Milan (Ita/Lidl-Trek) 3hrs 50mins 26secs

Wout van Aert (Bel/Visma-Lease a Bike) Same time

Kaden Groves (Aus/Alpecin-Deceuninck)

Pascal Ackermann (Ger/Israel-Premier Tech)

Arnaud de Lie (Bel/Lotto)

Tobias Lund Andresen (Den/Picnic-PostNL)

Bryan Coquard (Fra/Cofidis)

Alberto Dainese (Ita/Tudor Pro-cycling)

Vincenzo Albanese (Ita/EF Education-EasyPost)

Stian Fredheim (Nor/Uno-X Mobility)

General classification after stage eight

Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Emirates-XRG) 25hrs 58mins 4secs

Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) +54secs

Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +1min 11secs

Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 17secs

Mathieu van der Poel (Ned/Alpecin-Deceuninck) +1min 29secs

Matteo Jorgenson (US/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 34secs

Oscar Onley (GB/Picnic PostNL) +2mins 49secs

Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe) +3mins 2secs

Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe) +3mins 6secs

Mattias Skjelmose (Den) +3mins 43secs

[themaclad]

A sprinter's finish won by Tim Merlier however the two heroes were Van Der Poel and his team mate Rickaert who launched a two man break, 170 kms from the finish, at one time they had a five minute lead which would have put Van Der Poel in the yellow jersey.
On and on they went, when it started to dawn on the main bunch that these two could actually win the stage. The lead was whittled down and with five kms to go Rickaert ran out of gas, alone Van Der Poel was gradually reeled in until cruely with 700 metres to go he was caught. Shame deserved glory.
Today is Bastille Day, followed by the first rest day, expect fireworks on France's National Day expect plenty of cake will be eaten and peasants may be executed