MADRID, 6 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) won stage 8 of the men’s Tour de France in the sprint on Saturday, over 183.4 kilometres between Semur-en-Auxois and Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, while Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) remained the leader of the general classification without any problems.
14.5 kilometres from the finish line, the day’s great breakaway, which had been led by Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), came to an end. Wearing the red polka dot jersey, by virtue of being the leader of the mountains classification, the Norwegian had been riding solo for 140 kilometres and in total 169 kilometres as a breakaway rider.
With 2.7 kilometres to go, there was a collision in the middle of the pack and a couple of riders escaped the incident by going into the grass, on the left side of a straight in the course. After the scare, the final sprint was launched and Biniam Girmay beat Belgian Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in extremis, with a cumulative time of 4h04:50.
It was a déjà vu of what happened last Monday, when Girmay won stage 3 of this 111th edition of the ‘Grande Boucle’ and became the first black African to win a day in the Tour de France, something he also achieved in 2022 in another ‘major’ such as the Giro d’Italia.
But until Girmay’s second Tour victory, the day had already started strangely. 173 riders took part, with the Danish rider Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) not on the list due to physical problems caused by the hard crash on stage 5. In this scenario, the EF Education-EasyPost team went on the attack right from the start. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
American Neilson Powless and Swiss Stefan Bissegger were the ones who made that move, accompanied by Jonas Abrahamsen who dropped them 29 kilometres later. He did so after having crowned the Côte de Vitteaux (3rd category) and having been soaked by heavy rain. From then on, his solo dream began, but the peloton did not think the same.
Although the leader of the mountains pushed hard and protected his red polka dot jersey well, teams like Alpecin-Deceuninck and Bahrain Victorious began to ride with increasing power in search of the Norwegian and to force a sprint that would benefit their best assets.
And so it was in the final stages of the stage, with Alex Aranburu (Movistar Team) the best Spaniard at the finish thanks to his ninth place. Right behind him, Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) finished the day, and he continues to fight for first place in the general classification against Tadej Pogacar.
The 2024 Tour de France will see its 9th stage this Sunday, with a 199-kilometre medium-mountain route, starting and finishing in the city of Troyes. This Sunday event will be the prelude to a rest day in Orléans, after which the ‘Grande Boucle’ will resume with another completely flat stage on the way to Saint Amand Montrond.
2024-07-06 15:37:41
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