PREVIEW | Tour de France 2025 stage 8 - Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier main favourites for bunch sprint; But can Girmay surprise?

The 2025 Tour de France will be the biggest and most important race of the season and will be taking place between the 5th and 27th of July. This is the sport's climax of the season and every year it delivers memorable action. We preview stage 8.

Another stage for the pure sprinters, a transition day through the French territory ending in the city of Laval. A transition day without anything serious to analyze, as there will be no climbing whatsoever during the day, but instead all eyes in the final sprint.

It won't be an easy one. The speed will be very high taking into consideration how there will be nothing throughout the day to fatigue the riders at a meaningful level. There will be a few roundabouts that'll stretch the peloton and then the last 1.3 kilometers have a slight uphill gradient.

It will make for an interesting sprint, not a pure one, but one where form and climbing legs may also be quite meaningful. All-in-all, the gradients won't likely be high enough to exclude anyone from contention.

An eastern breeze throughout the entire day means that we will have a headwind throughout most of the stage. Bad news for those hoping for a breakaway - I believe that after what we saw on stage 3, there is a good chance that once again there simply won't be anyone wanting to join the breakaway even if for TV exposure. But, we will have a tailwind sprint.

The thing is I don't expect in any way for there to be a breakaway that'll need a hard chase. At the start of the day I was wondering if Alpecin-Deceuninck would be willing to pace throughout the day as they have Silvan Dillier here for that task, but the reality is without Philipsen they have no responsibility whatsoever. But between Lidl-Trek and Intermarché - Wanty (or even Alpecin still) there will be some sort of small push just to make sure nothing gets out of hand.

Jonathan Milan - Lidl-Trek know exactly what to do and just have to execute their plan. An in-form team, a leadout with both quantity and quality.. I believe they will be able to deliver the Italian powerhouse to Italy's first stage win in several years at the Tour.

Tim Merlier - Quick-Step has been suffering with crashes and Remco Evenepoel has lost his (so far) right-hand man for the flat stages. With him in second, the team has to spend even more resources to protect him and I fear Merlier will have a rough time in the final kilometers.

Jordi Meeus on paper would be as much of a favourite as the two above taking into consideration his abilities and his leadout which includes Danny van Poppel - but the crash on stage 3 and his injuries may come in the way of him being able to perform at his best. We had very fast men such as Soren Waerenskjold and Phil Bauhaus to the list of the main men to take into consideration, whilst of course never neglecting Biniam Girmay who hasn't been looking as sharp as last year but has been consistent and will always be in search of as many points as possible in pursuit of the green jersey.

Add to the mix Marijn van den Berg, Paul Penhoët, Alberto Dainese, Dylan Groenewegen, Arnaud Démare, Bryan Coquard, Cees Bol, Pavel Bittner, Pascal Ackermann and Arnaud de Lie and we've still got a luxurious sprinter battle despite the withdrawals we've had so far and also the crashes that have been affecting the sprints so far. It will also be very interesting to see exactly what Alpecin do as Mathieu van der Poel is now looking to score points for the green jersey, but equally the team has in Kaden Groves an outsider for victory. It might be that both will have freedom to do their own sprint.

*** Tim Merlier, Jonathan Milan
** Jordi Meeus, Kaden Groves, Biniam Girmay, Soren Waerenskjold
* Phil Bauhaus, Alberto Dainese, Dylan Groenewegen, Bryan Coquard, Pavel Bittner, Pascal Ackermann, Mathieu van der Poel

Pick: Jonathan Milan

How: This time around, with a tailwind, being in front for the final sprint will be crucial. Tim Merlier will not be able to go through Milan if it comes down to regular circumstances.