Pogacar pipped but still leads

WOUT Van Aert and Tadej Pogacar once again took the glory on stage eight of the Tour de France as Van Aert snatched his second victory of the week and Pogacar extended his lead in the yellow jersey.

After hopes of a breakaway success were extinguished as the race moved into Switzerland, Belgian Van Aert had the power to beat Michael Matthews in an uphill sprint to the Olympic Stadium in Lausanne, but Slovenian Pogacar, ever hungry for success, was in the mix too as he came home in third.

And such is the appetite of a rider who has been compared to ‘The Cannibal’ Eddy Merckx in recent days that 23-year-old Pogacar tried to fight for what would have been a third stage win in as many days, and sounded disappointed with third place.

‘It was not that far away but it was a fun game today,’ said the UAE Team Emirates rider said. ‘It was a long day, hot and there was a lot of danger.

‘The last climb I liked. For the sprint, maybe I hesitated a bit and Van Aert passed me with super speed but third place is still great.’

The Slovenian can console himself with having used bonus seconds to extend his overall lead to 39 seconds from Van Aert’s Jumbo-Visma team-mate

Jonas Vingegaard. The Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas sits third, 74 seconds down going into today’s mountain stage to Chatel.

Austrlaian rider Matthews lit up his sprint first but had to settle for a second second place of the Tour, while Van Aert added to his stage-four win into Calais after spending four days in yellow earlier this week — extending his advantage in the points classification in the process.

‘Of course I’m super happy with the points,’ said the Belgian. ‘I’m pleased my team put everything into chasing down the breakaway.’

Welshman Thomas is hoping the mountains still to come can be the territory where the Ineos Grenadiers — who have Adam Yates in fourth place overall, Tom Pidcock seventh and Dani Martinez 10th, all within two minutes — can use their numbers against him.

‘He’s unbelievable talent,’ Thomas said of Pogacar. ‘We’ll just try to stay positive.’