Tour de France 2023: Mads Pedersen wins Stage 8 as Wout van Aert denied, Mark Cavendish crashes out

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) produced a monster sprint to win Stage 8 at the 2023 Tour de France as Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) suffered a heartbreaking crash to end his record bid.

Pedersen held off Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck) in a fatiguing but fascinating finish as Jumbo-Visma's hard work to tee up Wout van Aert came to nothing, as the Belgian was boxed in by his own leadout rider before beginning his sprint.

The stage was completed ahead of the fastest expected schedule, and began as it would go on, with a large number of teams and riders eager to get away, in the hope a break could be allowed to stick. The eventual stage winner was among those who tried, only to abandon his efforts when it became clear that the sprint teams were determined for it to finish with a large - or at most a reduced - group gallop.

That meant just three was deemed by the peloton to be an acceptably-sized group of escapees. The trio - Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), Anthony Delaplace (Arkea Samsic) and Tim Declercq (Soudal-Deceuninck) - were strong and wiley enough to have more of a chance than most. Rather than the peloton putting down the shutters, and slamming on the brakes, they built a four-minute lead through sheer brute force, riding at just shy of 50kph for the first two hours of the stage. Only then did the peloton begin to show concern that things were getting out of hand, Jumbo Visma sending Dutch road champion Dylan van Baarle to the front to manage the situation.

Still, through guile and trickery, Declercq, Delaplace and Turgis they were able to add an extra minute to their advantage and give themselves at least a fighting chance.

Too many teams, including Lidl-Trek, Cofidis, Jasper Philipsen's Alpecin-Deceuninck, as well as Jumbo Visma, were committed to bringing them back, however, and the effort to do so began in earnest when the stage reached the lumpier half of the course, with 80km to go. The first climb took away 25% of the break's advantage, which had come down by another minute 30km later.

As tension and tiredness set in, a slip of concentration somewhere towards the back of the bunch caused a concertina effect that stopped with Cavendish. The British rider, who almost took win No. 35 a day ago, looked briefly as if he might be able to continue, before accepting the impossibility and climbing disconsolately into an ambulance.

The Tour de France rolled on without him, only increasing its energy as Lidl-Trek devoted ever more resource to the chase, an indication of utmost confidence in the 2019 world champion’s capacity to finish things off on an uphill finish. Soudal-Quickstep who, in sending a rare rider up the road, had already shown the opposite of faith in Fabio Jakobsen, then gave another rider the nod.

Kasper Asgreen headed out in hope of meeting his team-mate, but the winner of the 2021 Tour of Flanders could manage a margin of no more than 20 seconds over the bunch, before returning with his tail rather between his legs.

A lively finale began with Jumbo-Visma setting a lightning tempo on the day's final categorised climb with 10km to go, ending any hope the day's final escapee, Turgis, had of an unlikely victory. The ever opportunistic Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) tried a late attack, taking Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) with him, and causing a short-lived split in the bunch before order was restored and the setup for a big-name finale was assured.

Alpecin-Deceuninck were in control at 5km to go, but it was Lidl-Trek leading in numbers under the flamme rouge in Limoges. Their Luxembourg champion Alex Kirsch was the one who dragged the bunch around the final left turn as the road kicked up for the last long drag to the line.

Christophe Laporte moved around Kirsch into first place with Van Aert on his wheel, but it was Pedersen who was able to launch the most monstrous of rockets to take himself down the right-hand side, as Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) looked to lead out Philipsen. The green jersey was almost able to draw level with the Dane, before having to admit defeat, Pedersen refusing to release his grip before the line.

The long uphill sprint, an exhausted Pedersen said afterwards, was especially painful: "I was this close to sitting down with 50m to go. I think Jasper [Philipsen] had to do a pretty good sprint to come from behind and make it that close. Tough one, but it doesn't matter if you win with two metres or one centimetre."

Pedersen also paid tribute to Mark Cavendish.

"It was a pleasure to be able to race with Mark," he said. "I always had a good relationship with him in the peloton. It's so sad that such a legend had to finish the Tour like this."

Words may be had on the Jumbo-Visma bus, as van Aert found himself boxed in by his leadout man, Laporte. Despite this difficulty, the Belgian came through late for third.

Among the general classification contenders, there was only one change. A late crash, which involved Simon Yates (Jayco-Alula) and forced Steff Cras (Total Energies) to abandon, lost the British rider 47 seconds, and dropped him down two places, from 4th to 6th.

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