Tour de France 2022 LIVE result: Wout van Aert wins stage 8 in Lausanne sprint finish

Follow all the latest updates from the Tour de France as Tadej Pogacar continues in the yellow jersey

Wout van Aert wins stage eight on the line (REUTERS)

Belgian Wout van Aert won the eighth stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, a hilly 186.3-km ride from Dole to Lausanne.

The Jumbo-Visma rider prevailed in a reduced bunch sprint at the top of the Cote du Stade Olympique, a 4.8-km effort at an average gradient of 4.6%.

Australian Michael Matthews was second while Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey by finishing third, picking up a four-second time bonus in the process.

Sunday’s ninth stage is a 192.9-km mountainous trek from Aigle, Switzerland, to Chatel.

Tour de France 2022 – stage 8

• Hilly 186km route from Dole, France to Lausanne, Switzerland
• Tadej Pogacar continued in yellow jersey with half-a-minute lead
• Wout van Aert sprints to stage victory for second win of 2022 Tour

[9 July 2022 15:41 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France 2022 – stage 8

Thibaut Pinot has suffered a nasty crash, first falling in the pack while climbing and then getting hit in the face while a team official tried to hand a rider a bidon.

[9 July 2022 15:26 · Lawrence Ostlere]

General classification (top 10)

Here is how the battle for the yellow jersey is shaping up, before stage eight:

1. Pogacar
2. Vingegaard +35”
3. Thomas +1’10”
4. A. Yates +1’18”
5. Gaudu +1’31”
6. Bardet +1’32”
7. Pidcock +1’35”
8. Powless +1’37”
9. Mas +1’43”
10. Martinez +1’55”

[9 July 2022 15:19 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France 2022 – stage 8

And Frison’s done. He falls off the pace of the breakaway and has to let Mattia Cattaneo and Fred Wright push on together.

[9 July 2022 15:15 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France 2022 – stage 8

65km to go: The breakaway has upped the pace after Mattia Cattaneo signalled to put their foot to the floor. He obviously had word in his ear that the peloton was resting up briefly for loo breaks and refuelling. They have increased their gap quickly to two minutes once more, although it does look like Frederik Frison is struggling to stick with Cattaneo and Wright.

[9 July 2022 15:06 · Lawrence Ostlere]

The Tour de France enters Switzerland!

In to the fourth country of this Tour – Denmark, France, Belgium and now Switzerland. The finish at Lausanne is 70km away.

[9 July 2022 15:04 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France 2022 – stage 8

This is all set up for a thrilling finish once the break is reeled in. Lots of the big stars will fancy themselves to win today, from more natural sprinters like Michael Matthews to more comfortable climbers like Primoz Roglic and everyone in between.

[9 July 2022 14:57 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France 2022 – stage 8

The breakaway is running out of gas here, perhaps they know the game is up. Their lead is down to 1 min 10 sec.

[9 July 2022 14:49 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France 2022 – stage 8

85km to go: So here’s where things stand as we reach the top of the Cote des Rousses, with two more categorised climbs to go. A three-man breakaway made up of Mattia Cattaneo (QuickStep), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Frederik Frison (Lotto-Soudal) went off up the road early but the peloton has not allowed them to escape too far, and their advantage is only around two minutes, which could easily be eaten up over the second half of this stage.

The reason for that is that Jumbo-Visma and BikeExchange in particular have been determined to turn today into a bunch finish for their men Wout van Aert and Michael Matthews respectively, so they have kept the pace on the front of the peloton high.

[9 July 2022 14:43 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France 2022 – stage 8

Rigoberto Uran drops back to his team car to receive some bandaging on his right arm after he was caught up in that early crash.

[9 July 2022 14:34 · Lawrence Ostlere]

Tour de France 2022 – stage 8

A reminder of the news this morning, which affects Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates:

Geoffrey Bouchard and Vegard Stake Laengen became the first Tour de France riders to pull out of the race with COVID-19, their teams said on Saturday.

Shortly after Bouchard’s withdrawal, UAE Team Emirates said Norwegian Laengen, a team mate of overall leader Tadej Pogacar, had tested positive.

“Vegard tested negative yesterday morning during the routine internal team testing protocol. But he reported sore throat symptoms late last night,” team doctor Adriano Rotunno said.

“The COVID-19 antigen test was positive, and the diagnosis was confirmed on a PCR test this morning. As per protocol, for his, the team, and the peloton’s safety he will be withdrawn from the race.”

Frenchman Bouchard, 30, won the mountains classification at the 2019 Vuelta a Espana and in last year’s Giro d’Italia.

“During the (seventh) stage (on Friday) I did not feel well. It’s a huge disappointment because we were just getting to my favourite terrain, the mountains,” AG2R-Citroen’s Bouchard said in a team statement.

AG2R-Citroen said that the rest of their squad, from whom Bouchard had been isolated, were negative for COVID-19.