TOUR DE FRANCE 2024 | STAGE 8 | SEMUR-EN-AUXOIS > COLOMBEY-LES-DEUX-ÉGLISES
Biniam Girmay of the Intermarche-Wanty team took his second stage win on this flat 8th stage of the Tour de France. Behind Jasper Philipsen was unable to match Girmay’s speed, while Arnaud de Lie put in a respectable third in the sprint.
“This victory I need to give to my mother, my family…they give me the support for cycling,” said Girmay after the stage. “I prefer this type of a sprint…with my weight, super nice. My team gave me a good lead out.” With one kilometer to go, Girmay said he knew his legs were “ready to go.”
Abrahamsen who already has the Polka Dot jersey, stayed out ahead of the peloton for the majority of the stage, and was overtaken in the final kilometers before the sprint into Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises in the Champagne area. Abrahamsen’s successful day meant he secured himself at least two more stages in the polka dot jersey, as there will only be 4 Climbers points available to the riders on Stage 9 and then in the 10th stage there will be none.
Sprint provisional results
1. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty)
2. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
3. Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-dstny)
4. Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech)
5. Marijn Van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost)
Tadej Pogacar retains the yellow jersey
Provisional top 3 overall,, unchanged:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) +33”
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1’15”
Pedersen out of the Tour
There were 173 riders on the start line in Semur-en-Auxois, after Mads Pedersen was ultimately forced to abandon the race following his crash in the bunch sprint into Saint Vulbas on Stage 5. Intermittent rain, strong wind and the hilly parcours forecasted a demanding day. Neilson Powless and Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) attacked as soon as the starting flag was shown, along with Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X). The three built an advantage that increased to 2’25” at km 16. However, the attacks of EF Education-EasyPost itself on the Côte de Vitteaux (Cat 3, km 24.1) caused the peloton to accelerate and at the summit polka dot jersey wearer Abrahamsen went over first, with the gap back to bunch by then down to just 1’15”.
Abrahamsen charges on
Not finally able to place Ben Healy or Alberto Bettiol in the breakaway, EF gave up on the attacks
and also stopped Bissegger and Powless. Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) tried to join Abrahamsen in vain, and the Norwegian would top the climbs of Côte de Villy-en-Auxois (Cat 4, km 32.5) and the Côte de Verrey-sous-Salmaise (Cat 3, km 38.8) unchallenged and alone. At the intermediate sprint marker at Lamargelle (IS, km 59) Abrahamsen enjoyed a 5’40” lead over a relaxed peloton. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) was the first rider from the peloton at the intermediate sprint point, thus securing another day in the green jersey.
More polka dot prominence
Abrahamsen pushed on alone over the Côte de Santenoge (Cat 4, km 96.7) and the Côte de Giey-sur-Aujon (Cat 4, km 122.4) picking up more points for the Mountain classification, though by the time he had reached the summit of the second of those climbs – the final categorized climb of the stage – his lead was down to just over 4 minutes.
A hectic finish in Colombey-les-deux-Eglises
Abrahamsen’s epic breakaway endeavours concluded 14.4 km from the finish and from there on the peloton raced together to Colombey-les-deux-Eglises. The frantic finale saw Girmay outsprint his rivals in an awesome display of power to grab the stage win in the green jersey.
