Place Name: Route Nationale 19
Address: 48 Route Nationale 19, 52330 Colombey les Deux Églises, France
Details: July 6, 2024
Rain greeted the riders in the start town of Semur-en-Auxois as they made their way through France Profonde on their way to Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, the second home of Charles de Gaulle. Stage 8 is peppered with category 3 and 4 climbs which could offer plenty of launch points for a break. Without a dominant sprinter this year, it is not clear who will take control of the peloton when the break does go.
In the opening kilometer, three riders went away almost immediately without the expected fight. Neilson Powless and Stefan Bissegger of EF-Education EasyPost went, followed by Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobilty. They got a gap of 2 minutes and held that for 20KM. At 160KM to go, Alberto Bettiol of EF-Education EasyPost attacked from the peloton on the first categorized climb with his teammate Ben Healy and Stephen Williams of Israel-Premier Tech in the wheel. It all came back together over the top and, oddly enough, Powless and Bissegger stopped their move and left Abrahamsen in front alone.
The peloton calmed down and by 130KM to go, Abrahamsen had over a 5 minute lead. After the final categorized climb at around 60KM to go, the road widened and the peloton's chase became more effective. Abrahamsen started leaking time, down to 3 minutes with 42KM to race as Lotto-Dstny, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Cofidis, and Intermarché-Wanty were committed to the chase. Abrahamsen's brave escape came to an end with 14KM to go but he was successful in taking all of the mountains points and forcing the peloton to ride hard to catch him.
A head wind blocked the road as the bunch was going in slow motion up final large roller to the finish line. Bryan Coquard of Cofidis hit the front too early and made a perfect lead out for Biniam Girmay of Intermarché-Wanty and Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck. Philipsen started his sprint from behind Girmay and got ahead but Girmay had the strength to power passed Philipsen to take his second win of the race. Philipsen took second place with Arnaud De Lie of Lotto-Dstny in third place.
Tags: Tour de France, 2024, July, Stage 8, Tour de France 2024, Semur-en-Auxois, Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, Neilson Powless, Stefan Bissegger, Jonas Abrahamsen, Alberto Bettiol, Ben Healy, Stephen Williams, Bryan Coquard, Biniam Girmay, Jasper Philipsen, Arnaud De Lie