Tour de France: Groenewegen doubles up in Amiens

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After another largely quiet day at the Tour de France, Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) made it two wins in two days in Amiens, out-sprinting André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) and Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step Floors) - although the latter two would be relegated by officials after the stage.

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) launched first, in something of a messy sprint. The Slovak hit out at 300 metres and Greipel dove for his wheel, shutting the door on Gaviria in the process. The Quick-Step rider head-butted Greipel in an attempt to open room to sprint through - a move that resulted in his relegation.

Groenewegen had a front row seat for the tussle, and chose the perfect moment to open up his sprint and take out his second victory in a row.

"The legs are better every day,” Groenewegen said after the finish. “Today it was a fast final with a lot of corners but the team did an amazing job and my position was good and I saw Gaviria and Greipel were fighting for position. I saw the finish and thought ‘this is the moment.’ It was a hectic final, but that’s every day in the Tour.”

“The first days [of the Tour] were not what I expected,” he added. “But the last two days were very good with the two wins, so I like that.”

Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) extended his GC lead, taking a solitary second in the bonification sprint towards the end of the stage. With Sunday’s stage running over the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix en route to the town, the Belgian is favoured to retain the yellow jersey and even extend his lead further.

Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) had a bad crash late in the stage, and lost 1:16, tumbling down the rankings, now 2:40 from Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), who remains the best placed of the overall contenders in second, seven seconds from Van Avermaet.

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How it happened

After Friday’s longest stage of the Tour de France, stage 8 was a mere 181km to Amiens in northern France. The town last hosted the Tour in 2015, when André Greipel beat Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish in a sprint finish.

Another sprint was expected today, with two category three climbs the only obstacles of the day. They were the Côte de Pacy-sur-Eure (2km at 4.3 per cent) and the Côte de Feuquerolles (2.3km at 4.3 per cent) coming at 35km and 71.5km respectively. The day’s intermediate sprint came at 86.5km, while the penultimate bonification sprint of the Tour came 20km from the finish.

Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe) was the day’s first attacker, going from the flag, but he didn’t last long out front before being brought back. Laurens Ten Dam (Team Sunweb) launched the main break of the day, attacking 20km into the day.

Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) and Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) followed before Ten Dam dropped back to the peloton after a long chat with the team car. The duo at one point enjoyed a six-minute gap as the peloton rode behind the slowest time schedule once again.

Much like Friday’s stage, this one was characterised by a lack of action, as well as the hopelessness of the breakaway. With the expected sprinter’s teams — Quick Step Floors, Lotto-Soudal, Dimension Data among them — working at the front of the peloton, Grellier and Minnaard wouldn’t last to the finish.

Rolling over the bonification sprint with 20km remaining, the lead duo had a 1:20 advantage. Back in the peloton, BMC’s mini lead-out saw Greg Van Avermaet take a bonus second uncontested, extending his GC lead to seven seconds.

A crash in the middle of the bunch with 16km to go saw Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) and Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step Floors) among the casualties. The Irishman had five teammates with him as he remounted, around 1:30 behind the peloton.

Grellier was the last man standing from the break, caught 6km out as the peloton charged towards the inevitable sprint finish. Meanwhile, the Dan Martin group had closed to within 50 seconds. Philippe Gilbert’s (Quick Step Floors) attack with 3km to go gave his team some respite from their work, before Dimension Data and Lotto-Soudal put in the work to catch him.

Lotto-Soudal and then Groupama-FDJ hit the front in the final kilometre before Sagan launched his sprint, but nothing could be done to stop Groenewegen and his perfectly-timed jump.

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