Tour de France: Jonathan Milan wins stage eight after bunch sprint

Italy’s Jonathan Milan won stage eight of the Tour de France following a bunch sprint.

Lidl Trek’s Milan beat Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike on the flat 171.4km stage into Laval’s Espace Mayenne.

Milan, 24, waited patiently in the wheels of Mathieu van der Poel and Kaden Groves, both of Alpecin-Deceuninck, in the final 200 metres before using his immense power to launch himself towards the line – with only Van Aert able to cling on behind.

Australian Groves finished a distant third.

It was a quiet stage for the contenders for the overall leader’s yellow jersey, which was retained by defending champion Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who leads Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-Quick Step by 54 seconds.

Slovenian Pogacar’s main rival for yellow, alongside Evenepoel, is two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike, who currently sits one minute 17 seconds down in fourth in the general classification.

The fight for the green points jersey – usually won by a sprinter – now sees Milan taking over the lead with 192 points.

Pogacar is second on 156, after the 26-year-old’s points success in his two stage victories so far.

Last year’s green jersey winner Biniam Girmay of Eritrea is third on 124 points.

“I still don’t understand what we did,” said Milan afterwards. “There were expectations, dreams to bring it home.

“I was confident with the team. It was a bit stressful – I knew I had to wait as long as I could. We really deserve it.”

After what was quiet stage, until the sprint, in 30C (86F) heat, save for a few crashes on the way, the three-week race will finally begin to move south with stage nine’s flat 174km sprint from Chinon to Chateauroux.