Lausanne (AFP)
Belgian cyclist Vot van Aert took first place in the eighth stage of the Tour de France in Lausanne, while the defending champion Slovenian Tade Pogacár retained the yellow jersey after finishing third.
The second place went to Australian Michael Matthews.
The victory is the second for Van Aert in this year’s tour, noting that he was second three times as well.
Bogachar, the champion of the past two editions, leads the standings, 39 seconds behind the Danish Jonas Vingegard and one minute and 14 seconds from the British Geraint Thomas.
This stage, which extended over a distance of 186.3 km, witnessed a collective fall after its launch of nine km, and the first two cases of Corona virus were detected, related to the Norwegian Vigard Stacke Lingen and the French Jeffrey Bouchard, who did not participate in it.
The ranking of the top five in the eighth stage:
1- Belgian Voet van Aert 4.13:06 hours
2- Australian Michael Matthews at the same time
3- Slovenian Tade Pogačar at the same time
4- Andreas Kron of Denmark at the same time
5- Albert Petitol, the Italian, at the same time
While the overall standings for the top five of the Tour de France were:
1- Slovenian Tade Pogácár 28.56:16 hours
Denmark’s Jonas Weingegaard, 39 seconds behind
3- Britain’s Geraint Thomas, 1:14 minutes ahead
4- Briton Adam Yates with a difference of 1:22 d.
5- Frenchman David Godot, 51:31 d.