Tour de France stage 8: Wout van Aert wins in Lausanne ahead of Matthews and Pogacar

The eighth stage of the Tour de France was one suited to the puncheurs, and a reduced bunch sprint was as expected seen in Lausanne after the peloton controlled the breakaway. It was the second victory for Wout van Aert of Jumbo-Visma who extended his lead in the points classification.

The day promised to be one well suited to a breakaway, however it wasn't the case as the opening flat kilometers proved to be easy for the teams to control the peloton. A three-man group went up the road, with Fred Wright (Bahrain - Victorious), Mattia Cattaneo (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) and Frederik Frison (Lotto Soudal).

The trio never got a big gap, with Jumbo-Visma and Team BikeExchange - Jayco controlling the race. It was a day with a couple of crashes, however in it's majority a calm one in the peloton. Wright was the last survivor, caught in the opening slopes of the climb.

Small moves came, with Patrick Konrad pushing the pace, thinning down the group in the first half of the final hilltop. In the final 1.5 kilometers UAE took it up, once again with Rafal Majka setting the pace with Tadej Pogacar in the wheel.

It was a reduced bunch sprint as in Longwy, with the same protagonists except for Wout van Aert who had the intention this time around. Michael Matthews was the first to launch the sprint, but over the final meters Wout van Aert went over the Australian and took the win. Tadej Pogacar rode to a third place and took another four seconds on his rivals.

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