Place Name: Boulevard Pierre Elain
Address: Boulevard Pierre Elain, 53000 Laval, France
Details: July 12, 2025
Not only is today 30KM shorter than the last two days, there is also only 1,300M of climbing across the 171KM route from Saint-Méen-le-Grand, home of cycling great Louison Bobet, to Laval. The route leaves Brittany and heads directly East, skirting around Rennes, and turns slightly South for the intermediate sprint in Vitré with 89KM to go. The only categorized climb is the category four Côte de Nuillé-sur-Vicoin with 16KM to go but it should not trouble the sprinters as they make the run into Laval on the banks of the Mayenne river for the finish up a slight 1KM drag. The third stage of the Boucles de la Mayenne finished in Laval at the end of May on the other side of town where Biniam Girmay and Bryan Coquard sprinted for second and third and would be hoping to go a bit better today.
The riders were fortunate to have another day of warm and dry weather as they rolled out through freshly cut fields of wheat. Eddie Dunbar of Jayco AlUla did not take to the start after the crash in the final few kilometers of yesterday's stage. For the rest of the riders suffering with injuries or illness that started the day, they would be relieved when the flag dropped and not a single rider went on the attack. After 10KM, Lidl-Trek and Intermarché-Wanty started riding in the peloton just to get the pace rolling.
Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek did nearly all of the work on the front of the peloton until the 88KM to go when riders started to push forward for the intermediate sprint. Intermarché-Wanty led out but again, Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek won the sprint without having to invest much to do so. The first attack of the day came from TotalEnergies with Mattéo Vercher and Mathieu Burgaudeau springing from the bunch with 80.5KM to go. They got nearly 1 minute as a maximum advantage but the gap started to tumble with 35KM to go as the peloton kicked into another gear to prepare for a change of direction to the North, putting the wind to the right shoulder.
The wind was not strong enough to cause any trouble however. The bunch slowed down which allowed the gap to grow from 15 seconds back out to over 50 seconds. The two leaders started the Côte de Nuillé-sur-Vicoin with 17KM to go. Spectators lined both sides of the road for the entirety of the climb as Burgaudeau led over the top to take the single point on offer. Burgaudeau was the stronger of the two and went solo with 12.5KM to go. Behind, a puncture for stage favorite Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep put the Belgian team in a panic to get him back into the bunch. Paul Penhoët, the sprinter for Groupama-FDJ, punctured a kilometer later but the peloton continued to barrel ahead, catching Burgaudeau just inside 10KM to go. Merlier and Penhoët both made it back to the peloton but could not get in position for the sprint.
The final 5KM had a number of roundabouts and turns that constantly strung the peloton out before accordioning back together. At 4KM to go, Alpecin-Deceuninck had control with Bahrain Victorious, Israel-Premier Tech and Lidl-Trek queueing behind. Bahrain Victorious led down a hill and across the river to 1500M to go and had the first 30 riders in the peloton in single file. The final kilometer gently dragged up which allowed many riders to swell up to the front of the peloton. Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck took Kaden Groves up to the front with 400M to go with Milan sitting on the wheel. Milan looked like he might launch at 300M but decided to sit down and wait a bit longer. When Groves finally started his sprint at 200M, Milan went the long way around and powered up the hill to victory, his first on the Tour de France. Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike was on Milan's wheel but didn't have the power to come out of the slipstream and had to settle for second. Groves took third place but was a few bike lengths off the charging Italian.
Tags: Tour de France, 2025, July, Stage 8, Tour de France 2025, Saint-Méen-le-Grand, Laval, Quinn Simmons, Jonathan Milan, Mattéo Vercher, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Mathieu van der Poel, Kaden Groves, Wout van Aert