Milan wins Tour stage eight after bunch sprint

Jonathan MilanGetty Images

Four-time Giro d'Italia stage winner Milan is making his Tour de France debut

Matt Warwick
BBC Sport Senior Journalist

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

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

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

  3. Kaden Groves (Aus/Alpecin-Deceuninck)

  4. Pascal Ackermann (Ger/Israel-Premier Tech)

  5. Arnaud de Lie (Bel/Lotto)

  6. Tobias Lund Andresen (Den/Picnic-PostNL)

  7. Bryan Coquard (Fra/Cofidis)

  8. Alberto Dainese (Ita/Tudor Pro-cycling)

  9. Vincenzo Albanese (Ita/EF Education-EasyPost)

  10. Stian Fredheim (Nor/Uno-X Mobility)

General classification after stage eight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  10. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) +3mins 43secs

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