Tour de France Tour de France 2025 Stage 8, Saint-Méen-le-Grand-> Laval, 171.4k

[Moose McKnuckles]

Listening to the commentary on stages like this...

 

[movingtarget]

Tough day for commentators.

 

[SHAD0W93]

If ridden hard I think Girmay will take it.

 

[Gratemans]

How about we make this post the last one of the thread until about 16:50?

Yeah ok, there'll probably some random crash again we need to talk about but still... yawn.
It's the friggin weekend!

 

[red_flanders]

I’m gonna ride my bikes…

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Maybe we can get some action, if the sprinter teams decides to race for full points at the intermediate sprint. Probability considerable lower than Poggi winning the rest of the stages in the tour.

If stage is raced hard, crashes will likely be minor, time will tell.

Merlier ftw.

 

[Cookster15]

Agree with the comments above. The Tour is as commercialised as ever. That being said, why would you have a stage design like this on the weekend? Won't be too good for ratings or sponsors?

I'll take a stab in the dark and pick Groves. Low probability but he's due a win.

 

[AmRacer]

Maybe we can get some action, if the sprinter teams decides to race for full points at the intermediate sprint. Probability considerable lower than Poggi winning the rest of the stages in the tour.

If stage is raced hard, crashes will likely be minor, time will tell.

Merlier ftw.

They must, or Pogi wins Green.

 

[Andy262]

This finish looks pretty good.for Bini, but yes what garbage for a weekend stage.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Milan to finally end Italy's streak of not winning a stage since Nibali

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

Milan to finally end Italy's streak of not winning a stage since Nibali

Wait, is that actually a real stat? No Italian stage wins at the tour since Nibali?

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

Wait, is that actually a real stat? No Italian stage wins at the tour since Nibali?

Couldn't believe it either, just looked it up. It's real. Wow

 

[Rob5091]

Where's everyone's favourite one-legged winner, Arnuad De Lie? I don't know what they're doing at Lotto, but stop thinking about the money problems and get the guys fired up for the weekend!
Who's going to get in the break? Won't there be one until after the intermediate sprint? Lots of TV viewers at prime time weekend, so make your sponsors proud and win 2,000 Euros into the bargain and maybe renew your contract for next year.
Another question is what will Pogi do when he gets really bored? Hide in the bushes again?

 

[fenns]

Why would they leave the boring stages for the weekend?

Maybe because of the Wimbledon finals

 

[Red Rick]

That finish was way harder than it looked and everyone expected. Was pretty steep in the end.

That being said, tomorrows stage also does not look similar to a Nokere finish. It's a longer drag, I do think this favors Milan heavily over Merlier and this might be hard enough for someone like Girmay to actually have a shot at winning. Prime De Lie would also be all over this but yeah about that... (and he doesn't have his leadout anymore either)

Oh yeah Groves likes this too...

It wasn't that hard, but it got steepest toward the top and the leadouts were hard enough to fry the sprinters. Milan still won it though

 

[CyclistAbi]

'It may be that you don't understand each other's tactics, but that's how cycling is' – Intense but respectful UAE-Visma Tour de France rivalry simmers after stage 8

'What was the plan? It's a good thing Pogačar doesn't get it' says Visma DS Grischa Niermann after race up Mûr-de-Bretagne

www.cyclingnews.com

No beef this weekend, just some goat and fish. But i have to wonder is the media blind? Keeping Pogi in yellow, how could they missed that? As usual a whole lot of bull.

 

[Didinho]

De Lie would be my favorite, if there are no roundabouts, or corners, or in decent shape.
But I still expect something from him today, maybe the start of him being a good rider again.

Otherwise you can't look past Merlier vs Milan, and Groves with a Mathieu leadout. Although would love to see Mathieu going for the win himself.

 

[search]

De Lie would be my favorite, if there are no roundabouts, or corners, or in decent shape.
But I still expect something from him today, maybe the start of him being a good rider again.

he sounded somewhat confident at least, saying that his issue are mainly the first three hours of a stage (for whatever reason)

(gt) "I don't understand the phenomenon, but I still suffer a lot in the first three hours of racing sometimes not even being able to talk," Walloon continued. On Thursday, when it blew up for almost two hours at the beginning of the stage, I was in the cabbage... I feel stuck, not at my level. Usually, in a race in stages, you can experience this kind of thing over a day before everything is released afterwards. But here, it has lasted since the Grand Departure of Lille ... I was reassured about my condition before the start of this Tour, but it has to be said that I am not at my real level. I'm looking for my feelings."

A fog in which the runner at Lotto tries to stay the course. "I'm trying to focus on what's going on, on the opportunities that are going to happen because there aren't many of them. On Saturday, with 170 terminals on the programme, I know, for example, that the stage will last more than three hours. And in view of my feelings, it does my stuff rather well (smiles)..."

Tour de France 2025 -"Je tente de me concentrer sur ce qui va…" : Arnaud De Lie veut saisir l'opportunité du sprint ce samedi

À l'image de son équipe, le Taureau de Lescheret vit une première compliquée mais veut briller ce week-end à Laval.

www.dhnet.be

 

[Cycling111]

It's an finish for Girmay, but he's not in great shape.

 

[Red Rick]

Meanwhile, is it weird to expect Trek to pull back a 1 man breakaway before the intermediate sprint?

 

[Tim Cahill]

Anyone seen the Pogacar/Jorgenson thing at the feed zone yesterday? Handbags or something more? I can’t get the TNT broadcast of yesterdays stage open to check.

Said it yesterday, if you’re Pogacars DS you have to be telling him to ignore Jorgenson, don’t rise to it, don’t fall for his antics, he’s quite clearly doing it on purpose.

 

[dobrien]

Tough day for commentators.

"And here they are riding past the ruins of the castle of Jacques III, 12th Archduke of Camembert and interestingly enough, the inventor of the cheese wheel...."

 

[Rob5091]

Anyone seen the Pogacar/Jorgenson thing at the feed zone yesterday? Handbags or something more? I can’t get the TNT broadcast of yesterdays stage open to check.

Said it yesterday, if you’re Pogacars DS you have to be telling him to ignore Jorgenson, don’t rise to it, don’t fall for his antics, he’s quite clearly doing it on purpose.

If Pogacar keeps reacting, then Visma will carry on with the tactics. Can not be worse then the bumping and barging going on in sprints. At least it gives us something to write about on the forum.

 

[Stablo]

Anyone seen the Pogacar/Jorgenson thing at the feed zone yesterday? Handbags or something more? I can’t get the TNT broadcast of yesterdays stage open to check.

Pogacar pushed Jorgenson and made him miss the bottle from the feedzone. Didn't get why he was pushing Matteo there, but looked weird.

 

[Samamba]

he sounded somewhat confident at least, saying that his issue are mainly the first three hours of a stage (for whatever reason)

(gt) "I don't understand the phenomenon, but I still suffer a lot in the first three hours of racing sometimes not even being able to talk," Walloon continued. On Thursday, when it blew up for almost two hours at the beginning of the stage, I was in the cabbage... I feel stuck, not at my level. Usually, in a race in stages, you can experience this kind of thing over a day before everything is released afterwards. But here, it has lasted since the Grand Departure of Lille ... I was reassured about my condition before the start of this Tour, but it has to be said that I am not at my real level. I'm looking for my feelings."

A fog in which the runner at Lotto tries to stay the course. "I'm trying to focus on what's going on, on the opportunities that are going to happen because there aren't many of them. On Saturday, with 170 terminals on the programme, I know, for example, that the stage will last more than three hours. And in view of my feelings, it does my stuff rather well (smiles)..."

Tour de France 2025 -"Je tente de me concentrer sur ce qui va…" : Arnaud De Lie veut saisir l'opportunité du sprint ce samedi

À l'image de son équipe, le Taureau de Lescheret vit une première compliquée mais veut briller ce week-end à Laval.

www.dhnet.be

The difference between his interviews in Walloon press compared to the ones in Flemish press are always hilarious. In Walloon press he admits he's obviously not doing great, in Flemish press it's always like he's happy and everything is fine.

But yeah, just watched a video of the last 2km. This would've been perfect for him (even tho the stage itself would've been too easy), but now. No shot I think. I have a feeling the team and De Lie himself would already be somewhat happy with just seeing De Lie sprint all out for once, even if it ends up in like an 8th place. He has sprinted once (!!!) in the last 4 months.