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.
The average stage speed had been high on most days during the first week of the 2025 Tour de France and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) fought for every bonus second as their rivalry intensified.
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On Saturday the average speed for the stage was 44.629 kph, still fast for a bike race but significantly slower than the 48.117 kph of stage 7 to the Mur-de-Bretagne hilltop finish on Friday, and the 45.767 kph average for the hilly stage 6 when Ben Healy won from the high-speed breakaway.
The reports of growing tension between UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike made up for the lack of intense racing.
"It was much more relaxed," Pogačar acknowledged, after riding in the yellow jersey but without his UAE Team Emirates-XRG having to do a lot of chase work.
"Today was easy, there was a bit of stress in the finale but manageable. It was a nice day out on the bike. I'd hope for more straight roads because we went through hectic villages but this kind of stage is beautiful too."
Vingegaard agreed. "It was quite an easy day, to be honest, the pace wasn't very hard today."
"I think a lot of guys in the bunch are very tired, so for a lot of guys it was a nice and easy day. It was quite a hectic final and I'm happy to make it to the finish line safely."
The flat stage profile, expected sprint finish and 30°C temperatures convinced every one in the peloton to ride steady when the stage started in Saint-Méen-le-Grand.
Nobody jumped away when the race director flag dropped and the attacks never came, even from the smaller French teams or wild card teams. There was a moment race 'entente cordiale', a pact of non-aggression.
The peace in the peloton only ended after 85km for the intermediate sprint. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) won it in a prelude to the sprint finish in Laval.
The Italian beat Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) to score 20 points for the green jersey competition. He scored another 50 points by winning in Laval to take the jersey from Pogačar.
The stage only came alive after the intermediate sprint when TotalEnergies sent a couple of riders up the road in search of glory.
Mathieu Burgaudeau and Mattéo Vercher were given a small gap but controlled gap of a minute but at least their attack livened the day and awoke anyone taking a nap while watching the Tour on a Saturday.
"We're honouring the race, what character, that's good guys," the TotalEnergies directeur sportif screamed at his riders over the race radio to motivate them.
The peloton also awoke, eventually caught the two on a late climb and the race was all together and ready for the sprint with 10km to go. The Tour de France rightly awarded the daily 'Prix de la Combativité' to both Burgaudeau and Vercher, rewarding their attack with some prize money.
The final kilometre and the sprint was tense and fast, perhaps faster than usual after the slow stage. Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty) crashed hard with 12km to go and then Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep punctured but the wide roads and a huge roundabout turn point lined out the peloton, making it impossible for anyone to out power Milan.
The only person to suffer all day was João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). He crashed hard on stage 7 and admitted he had fractured a rib as well as suffering lots of road rash and hurting a finger. But he bravely started the stage, suffered at the back of the proton and finished 168th, at 6:42.
"João is a big warrior today," Pogačar said in praise of his teammate.
"He was suffering with every acceleration, so chapeau to him for finishing the stage and not giving up. That's the true sprint of a champion."
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