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Pogačar grabs yellow jersey after dominant display on first day in the Alps, Woods third place

Van der Poel drops out of GC contention after six days in yellow

After a setback in Friday’s stage, Tadej Pogačar stamped his authority all over the Tour de France on the first day in the Alps, pulling on the yellow jersey after a masterful display. He leads Wout Van Aert by 1:48 and then next rider is almost three minutes after Van Aert. Michael Woods was third place on the day, vaulting 64 places up the GC. Dylan Teuns gave Bahrain-Victorious two consecutive stage wins, while his teammate Wout Poels kept the polka dot jersey in the squad. After six days in yellow, Mathieu van der Poel cracked spectacularly, finishing 22 minutes after Pogačar.

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The Course

Saturday was all about the three Cat. 1 climbs in the latter half of 150.8 km. All three were 8 percent or more. The Col de la Colombière was the final ascent, a 7.5 km of 8.4 percent with bonus seconds on offer at the top. It peaked 14 km from the finish in Le Grand-Bornand. The rain made the descents treacherous.

Another Wild Start

There was a lot of frantic action right from the gun, with an unclassified climb and its descent the setting for plenty of action. Woods was in a breakaway move, and he didn’t quite make a corner, going off road keeping the bike upright. It mostly came back together, but there was a distanced group containing Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome.

The second breakaway attempt contained second-place Wout Van Aert and Friday’s winner, the polka dot jersey Matej Mohorič. It was sewn up and all the action put ninth place Pierre Latour and the unfortunate Primož Roglič out the back.

The frenetic pace continued through the intermediate sprint. Green jersey Mark Cavendish wasn’t involved, as he was back with Thomas and Froome.

With 100 km to ride and the first categorized climb, Cat. 3 Côte de Copponex, on the horizon, another break attempted to form, this one including Pogačar and Woods. Wout Poels soloed over the top of the Copponex. Yet another move with Woods involved tried to bridge with Poels.

Woods wanted to be in every breakaway attempt on Saturday.

Poels carried on by his lonesome, cresting the Côte de Menthonnex-en-Bornes. Woods was part of an 18-strong chase group. The peloton finally sat up.

The Trio of Cat. 1 Climbs

On the way to the first Cat. 1, Côte de Mont-Saxonnex, Woods’ chase group reached Poels. The breakaway had a 3:30 gap over the yellow jersey group when the road tilted up. Poels tipped over first, putting himself into the virtual lead of the mountains classification.

Two DSM riders, Søren Kragh Andersen and Tiesj Benoot, dropped the wet descent like stones and took a gap onto the Col de Romme. Andersen set off alone with Woods leading the chase on the opening slopes. Woods met and dispatched Andersen with 35 km remaining.

UAE-Emirates whipped up the pace in the favourites group. Van der Poel popped. Wout Van Aert was next to go. Jakob Fuglsang and Angel Lopez were distanced too.

Pogačar attacked with Richard Carapaz on his wheel.

Pogacar attacks and at first Carapaz is able to follow.

The Slovenian then dropped the Ecuadorian.

Woods hit the peak of the Romme with a 1:05 gap over six chasers. His gap was 1:15 over his closest chasers as he started Col de la Colombière and 3:00 over Pogačar. Dylan Teuns (Belgium/Bahrain-Victorious) bridged to Woods with 3.3 km left to climb.

Pogla kept picking off the riders on the Colombière. With the Slovenian coming fast, Woods struggled to hold Teuns’ wheel and then fell off. Pogačar went past the Canadian before the peak and then took it relatively easy on the descent, getting caught by Woods and Jon Izagirre.

Teuns held tough to win his second career Tour stage. Izagirre was slightly faster than Woods and Pogačar.

Woods is now 33rd on GC and second in the KOM competition.

Sunday is the second day in the Alps and the last before the first rest day. It ends on a 20.8 km, 5.5 percent climb to Tignes.

2021 Tour de France Stage 8

1) Dylan Teuns (Belgium/Bahrain-Victorious) 3:54:41
2) Jon Izagirre (Spain/Astana-Premier Tech) +0:44
3) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +0:47
4) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:49
63) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana-Premier Tech) +28:41
89) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +35:01

2021 Tour de France GC
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates)
2) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma +1:48
3) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana-Premier Tech) +4:38
33) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation +27:01
49) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana-Premier Tech) +38:01
93) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +57:03