Mads Pedersen scored a massive victory for the brand new Lidl-Trek era on Saturday, sprinting from a long way to win Stage 8 of the Tour de France. The win not only showcased Pedersen’s strength, but was also an impressive display of all-in teamwork on a day when seemingly the entire peloton was targeting the stage win. Durangoan Quinn Simmons helped his teammate, Pedersen, score the victory.
“It means everything to finally have a stage win,” Pedersen said. “It means everything to me to win and especially with the new sponsor on the jersey, it’s a nice way to start this relationship.”
Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma, meanwhile, held onto the general classification lead, which he leads by 25 seconds over Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates.
Lidl-Trek took over the front of the peloton on Saturday with just over five kilometers to the finish. Danish champion Mattias Skjelmose led the tempo increase with Tony Gallopin, Jasper Stuyven, Alex Kirsch and, of course, Pedersen on his wheel. The teams of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-Quick Step couldn’t come over the top.
Skjelmose gave way to Gallopin, who gave way to Kirsch, who gave way to Stuyven. Just inside 500 meters to the finish line in Limoges, Pedersen was the last man standing for Lidl-Trek, left in perfect position to begin an early sprint along the barriers on the right side of the course. Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck, already a three-time stage winner at this year’s Tour, couldn’t make up the gap to a hard-charging Pedersen, who beat the Belgian rider by roughly half a bike length. Wout van Aert also got a good lead-in from Jumbo-Visma teammate Christophe Laporte, but ended up finishing third in the sprint finish.
“When we crossed the line, I knew I had won, but oh man, it was a long sprint and this uphill kick was really painful,” Pedersen said after the stage. “I was so close to sitting down with 50 meters to go and I think Jasper (Philipsen) had to do a pretty good sprint to come from behind and make it that close as well.”
“I waited a little too long,” Van Aert said. “Mathieu van der Poel and Philipsen passed me when Christophe dropped, and I had to brake. Christophe probably expected me to pass him on the right while I was on his left. After that, I came up just a bit short, unfortunately. I had the legs to win.”
Juan Pedro Lopez and Giulio Ciccone also helped Pedersen and pull the team through the second-longest stage of this year’s Tour at 201 kilometers, as well as over three categorized climbs.
“We didn’t know this morning if it would be a breakaway or a sprint, but it really looked like that sprinters’ teams didn’t want it to be a breakaway day so we stayed calm and the boys did a perfect lead-out today,” Pedersen said. “Even with the long sprint, I still had the legs to finish it off. I tried a few times early in the stage, but I realized that they wouldn’t let us go, so after that I just hung on and tried to save some energy.”
In the end, Pedersen scored his second Tour de France stage win, previously winning Stage 13 in 2022. He now has six Grand Tour stage wins in his career.
Vingegaard finished 18th on the stage. Pogacar finished 10th but didn’t erase any time from his 25-second deficit. Jai Hindley of BORA-hansgrohe remained in third in the GC (+1:34). Durangoan Sepp Kuss of Jumbo-Visma finished 33rd on the stage and remained in 10th in the GC with his effort.
Simmons finished 162nd for Lidl-Trek and was in 160th overall after the stage.
American Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) held on to the King of the Mountain jersey, Philipsen extended his points lead while Pogacar still leads the youth division and Jumbo-Visma the team race.
A day after nearly winning a record 35th Tour de France stage, Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) crashed hard and had to abandon the Tour with an injury.
Competing in his final season, the most successful sprinter in Tour history crashed out during the eighth stage. His team said he broke his right collarbone and will need surgery.
This edition was his last chance to become the outright record-holder after he announced in May during the Giro d’Italia that he will retire from cycling at the end of this season. Cavendish ended the Giro in style, winning the final stage in the historic center of Rome to post his 17th stage win at the Italian Grand Tour.
Cavendish’s 34 stage wins are tied for most all time with Eddy Merckx.
Simon Yates, who started the day fourth in the GC, also crashed late in the race. Yates, however, hopped on a new bike and frantically worked to catch the peloton and managed to only slide two spots to sixth in the GC, but lost 47 seconds to Vingegaard.
