Jonathan Milan ends years-long Italian drought at Tour de France - Wout van Aert and Kaden Groves second and third

Lidl-Trek came to the Tour de France with a full leadout backing up Jonathan Milan, but that didn't translate into a win until stage 8. The green jersey won the uphill sprint into Laval with Wout van Aert in his wheel.

The opening stage of this weekend featured some headwind and no climbs in the profile for the most part, and so once again there was no breakaway attempt early in the day. Lidl-Trek and Intermarché - Wanty agreed to share duties in the peloton not to let the race move at training speed.

It wasn't until 82 kilometers to go that action truly started on the day as Mattéo Vercher and Mathieu Burgaudeau of TotalEnergies hit the front and formed a front group that would go on to resist until the final 9 kilometers. The French team had the spotlight during most of the final two hours of racing but it wasn't hard for the peloton to reel them in.

The speed was incredibly high into Laval as the peloton had to cross the city before hitting the final sprint. Tim Merlier suffered a badly-timed mechanical but returned to the peloton in time for the sprint.

The sprint was very chaotic as almost no-one had a leadout into the final kilometer and it led to many movements. Inside the final kilometer Jonathan Milan jumped around from wheel to wheel and found himself following Kaden Groves who had Mathieu van der Poel leading him out. The Italian looked to have spent a lot of energy, but ultimately launched his sprint at the right time and stormed to a dominant win. Wout van Aert was the only rider able to follow the wheel, whilst Groves resisted to finish third on the day.