Stage 8 TDF 2022 Blog: Van Aert Top in Confoederatio Helvetica
The Stage 8 finish in Lausanne was an uphill sprint for puncheurs.
UAE led up the final climb, with Pogacar in third wheel and Vingegaard on his wheel. Wout van Aert followed his team mate Vingegaard.
A grimacing Rafal Majka was the last of the UAE domestiques, and he ground on at an ever-slower pace.
The sprints started with 300m to go, and Michael Matthews hit the front on the right hand side of the road. Wout van Aert nearly got boxed in, but he found a way through, and won the stage. Matthews was second and Pogacar third.
Pogacar got a 4s time bonus, which extends his overall lead to 39s over Vingegaard, and 1min14 ahead of Thomas in third place.
The Breakaway
The breakaway was three riders: Mattia Cattaneo, Fredrik Frison and Fred Wright. They were helped to get away by a crash in the bunch; equally, you could say that they were hindered by the crash, because otherwise more riders might have jumped across.
Frison dropped away first, then with 8km left Cattaneo had used up all his beans. That left Londoner Fred Wright alone with a 34s advantage over the peloton.
It must have been a good feeling for Wright to hit the bottom of the final climb alone, and experience the cheers from the big crowds. Wright was caught with 3.5km to go.