Instead, it was his Classics rival Pogacar who distanced him, with team UAE Emirates-XRG setting an infernal pace up the final slope to whittle the field down to a select group of climbers, including Remco Evenepoel, local boy Kevin Vauquelin, and Briton Oscar Onley, who ultimately finished third.

It’s the article that the entire Tour de France can’t stop talking about: Jonas Vingegaard ’s wife, Trine Hansen, says the two-time Tour winner is “burning the candle at both ends”, and complaining that “so much travel” and a near-year-round schedule is “squeezing the lemon too much.”

On the eighth day, the Tour de France rested. After seven days of intense racing, the riders opted to ease the pace and aggression on the road to Laval, riding at a steady pace for much of the 171km stage 8 into central France and the La Mayenne department.

Pogačar was happy to lose the yellow jersey by a single second to Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who went deep in the breakaway of the stage, won by Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), to take back yellow.

Van Aert is an all-around rider who can sprint (won the 2022 green jersey), climb (often a key worker for Vingegaard), time trial (Olympic bronze medalist) and excel in one-day races (second in the road race at the Olympics and worlds). In 2025, van Aert was second at cyclo-cross worlds, fourth at Paris-Roubaix and then helped Yates win the Giro.

Mathieu van der Poel made it two wins from two stages for Alpecin-Deceuninck at the 2025 Tour de France, winning a frantic stage into Boulogne-sur-Mer on Sunday afternoon and taking over the race lead from his team-mate Jasper Philipsen.

Dane looks ahead to the mountains on stage 10 and into the second and third week, as he sits fourth on GC 1:17 behind close rival