Sprint stages seem to be like buses at this year's Tour de France, as after having to wait until stage 5 for the first opportunity, the fast men are getting three chances in quick succession, with stage 8's flat run to Bergerac coming hot off the heels of a sprint battle in Bordeaux.
Running through the Dordogne, stage 8 comes in just shy of 180km and features just over 1,000m of climbing, coming in the form of two cat. 4 climbs which are out the way well before the finale and shouldn't trouble even the purest of sprinters.
The intermediate sprint comes 122km in, which means the sprinters' teams may want to keep the breakaway on a short leash all day and go for some points there themselves, with both the stage win and the battle for the green jersey heating up.
At present, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) leads that classification with 205 points, but the pure sprinters are not that far behind him, and with points weighted towards the finish lines of flat stages this year, a win today could see someone like Biniam Girmay, Max Kanter or Merlier leap up the standings towards Pedersen.
Points
Points at finish: 70-50-40-35-30-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2
The final 35km is completely flat with a fairly uncomplicated finale in Bergerac. There are two big 90-degree turns in the final 2km, but the roads in between are arrow straight and it's a clear 500m run to the finish line.
This will be a stage where a dialled lead-out is key, with the rider who is dropped off the latest likely to be able to speed to the win.
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Bergerac has hosted two Tour stage finishes before. In 2014, Lithuania’s Ramunas Navardauskas caught the peloton out with a masterful attack 13 kilometres from the finish. In 2017, Marcel Kittel’s speed enabled him to clinch the 13th of his 14 Tour victories.
Tour de France stage 8 prediction
Matilda Price
The favourites for today's stage are definitely Olav Kooij and Tim Merlier, with the balance probably tipping in favour of Merlier after his dominant effort yesterday, galloping to the win by quite a margin. He's a confidence sprinter who will only be boosted by his stage 7 win, and when his lead-out is in order, they're the best in the world, so I predict that he will make it two in a row today. But look out for Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) too, who is surely fueled by rage today, and could turn anger into winning aggression in the sprint.
Mountains
Côte de Domme (cat. 4, 3.7km at 3.3%), km. 102.6
1 pt
Côte du Buisson-de-Cadouin (cat 4, 2.2km at 5.6%), km. 140.4
Lyne has been involved in professional cycling for more than 15 years in both news reporting and sports marketing. She founded Podium Insight in 2008, quickly becoming a trusted source for news of the North American professional cycling world. She was the first to successfully use social media to consistently provide timely and live race updates for all fans. She is proud to have covered men's and women's news equally during her tenure at the helm of the site. Her writing has appeared on Cyclingnews and other news sites.
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