the danish Mads Pederson (Lidl Trek) avoided Jasper Philipsen’s poker with a powerful sprint which allowed him to prevail in the eighth stage, played between Libourne and Limoges, of 200.7 km, in which Jonas Vingegaard maintained the lead and Mark Cavendish retired due to a fall that will prevent him from surpassing the record of 34 victories he shares with Eddy Merck.
Pedersen blocked Philipsen’s path in a hotly contested finish in which the 27-year-old cyclist from Tollose displayed all his potential to get his second win in a Tour ahead of the belgian monster and Wout Van Aert, again with honey on his lips.
Mark Cavendish was not at the fight, at that time on his way to the hospital to check for damage from a frustrating fall that buried his record illusions. Neither did the Spanish Alex Aranburu, the winner of the Limousin Tour who had marked this stage to surprise.
The favorites arrived together, with Pogacar involved in the tenth sprint at the finish line. Vingegaard kept the yellow jersey the day before the Puy de Dôme with 25 seconds over the Slovenian and 1.34 minutes compared to Australian Jai Hindley. The Spanish Carlos Rodríguez moved to fourth place due to the loss of 47 seconds from Simon Yates, involved in a fall with Mikel Landa, who dropped the same time.
Landa, in free fall, went to fourteenth at 6.36, ahead of his teammate Pello Bilbao, twelfth at 6.10.
General classification of the Tour de France
Jonas Vingegaard TJV 34:09:38
Tadej Pogacar UAD +00:25
Jai Hindley BOH +01:34
Carlos Rodríguez IGD +03:30
Adam Yates UAD +03:40
Simon Yates JAY +04:01
David Gaudu GFC +04:03
Romain Bardet DSM +04:43
Thomas Pidcock IGD +04:43
Sepp Kuss TJV +05:28
Ben O’Connor ACT +06:10
Peio Bilbao TBV +06:10
Emanuel Buchmann BOH +06:32
Mikel Landa TBV +06:36
Louis Meintjes ICW +06:52
Guillaume Martin COF +07:08
Thibaut Pinot GFC +07:38
Felix Gall ACT +08:19
Skjelmose Jensen LTR +08:47
Jonathan Castroviejo IGD +12:53