08/07/2023

Mads Pedersen powers his way to dramatic stage 8 victory at the Tour de France

A dramatic stage 8 of the 2023 Tour de France has been won by Mads Pedersen on a day effected by a number of crashes.

It's a long day on the bike, one of the very few days that go over 200 kilometres. Another transition day with a pan-flat opening, however, there's a slightly different final, potentially ruling out the pure sprinters.

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Despite many people seemingly being incredibly keen to get in the breakaway, there were only three riders that managed to escape. Tim Declercq (Soudal - Quick Step), Anthony Delaplace (Team Arkéa Samsic) and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies).

After the intermediate sprint, a group led by the Astana Qazaqstan Team and Alpecin-Deceuninck launched a counter attack.

Whilst Jumbo-Visma ultimately brought it back without much trouble. the stress levels in the peloton had been raised momentarily.

The breakaway weren't playing any games with the bunch today. Riding full gas and forcing the peloton behind to do the same.

Then came the biggest story of the day. At a seemingly innocuous point in the race, Mark Cavendish's quest for a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage win was cruelly brought to an early end as he was taken off the race in an ambulance after a crash.

With the peloton eating into the time gap, Kasper Asgreen launched a solo move from the peloton. Although he was unable to latch onto the leaders, his teammate up ahead was able to ride in the wheels and save his legs.

Declercq though was unable to benefit from the rest as Turgis made his attack riding clear solo, holding a 43-second advantage with 16km to go.

Jumbo-Visma were going full gas on the front of the bunch, absolutely ripping up the peloton on the final categorised climb of the day, catching Turgis in the process with 8km to go.

A crash in the peloton saw 5th overall Simon Yates go down with the Brit being forced to chase hard to try and limit losses.

In the final, Mads Pedersen opened his sprint first and despite the efforts of Jasper Phillipsen and Wout van Aert, the Lidl-Trek sprinter just would not be denied.