Wout van Aert: "My team put everything in it to chase down the breakaway and then you have to finish it off"

Wout van Aert took his second win today, in another hilly finale as he sprinted to the win in Lausanne - his eighth win in the Tour de France.

“I’m super happy. Today was a big chance to take a lot of points from my competitors. My team put everything in it to chase down the breakaway and then you have to finish it off," the Belgian said after the finish. Jumbo-Visma helped settle the breakaway, and later controlled the stage together with Team BikeExchange - Jayco to carry things into a sprint. The leaders of both teams went head to head in Lausanne, with van Aert coming out on top after his first win in Calais.

“It was a pretty tough climb- 4.5k at 4.5% with the flat part in between so when it was going uphill it was really steep so I had to fight to stay in the wheel," he described. "I had to fight to stay on the wheel of Pogacar, but I knew if I could stay on the wheel, I knew the finish was a little flatter, and I could do my sprint.

Sure enough he did. Michael Matthews launched his sprint first, but the green jersey had the legs to go over the Australian and outsprinted him in another cruel finale.

“I didn’t think about it but winning anywhere in the Tour de France is nice," he concluded. With the green jersey very much secured and two stages in the bag, the Belgian will now focus more on the fight for the yellow jersey where Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic are fighting for.