Tour de France - Van Aert won again, but Pogacar extended his lead with a time credit

On the eighth stage on Saturday, the 186.5-kilometer stage starting from Dole awaited the field of four categorized climbs, which, with the finish in Lausanne, also affected Switzerland as the fourth country after Denmark, France and Belgium.

The field was affected by the coronavirus, Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën) and one of Pogacar's assistants, Vegard Stake Laengen, also dropped out due to infection.

At the beginning of the stage, there was a fall during escape attempts in the field, Pogacar was also affected, while the contenders were all able to continue, but the American Kevin Vermaerke gave up the race after holding his collarbone with a painful face on the ground. After those involved caught up, the field calmed down, so finally a group of three fugitives broke away for three and a half minutes.

Among them, Fred Wright remained alone for the last eight kilometers with a half-minute advantage, the British rider was caught 3.5 kilometers before the finish, already on the third category, 4.9 kilometers long final climb that led to the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise.

The overall contenders and the classy guys who could handle the climb well came to the sprint in a group of about thirty people, Van Aert in the green jersey proved to be the fastest, celebrating his second stage lap in this year's French circuit after his solo escape on Tuesday. The Australian Michael Matthews finished in second place - just like on Thursday - and Pogacar extended his advantage with a four-second time credit for third place, the combined riders all finished with the same time.

Quentin Fillon Maillet watched the stage from the race director's car: the 29-year-old French biathlete, who won two gold and three silver medals at this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, lives near the route

(Source: Source: sportrajongo.hu, mti/Photo: pixabay, mti)