2018 Tour de Suisse Stage 8 Results & Recap
Stage 8 of the 2018 Tour de Suisse is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Demare wins stage 8
French national champion Arnaud Démare (Equipe Groupama - FDJ) won today’s Bellinzona Circuit race, timing his sprint perfectly to overtake Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) after 123 kilometres of racing around six circuits. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) was third ahead of a disappointed Peter Sagan (Bora – Hansgrohe).
"For me this is the only real sprint of Tour de Suisse, I won it I'm really happy, the team did a lot of work, Demare said. “This is the last time I wear this beautiful jersey (French national championship jersey) before putting it back at stake, so it's an immense satisfaction."
Richie Porte came across the line after a fast and hectic race safely in the yellow. There’s one more stage left, a 34.4 kilometre individual time trial where Porte will have to defend his slight 17 second lead over Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team). Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) is third overall, 52 seconds down.
"The race has gone really well so far but it's not over until it's over,” Porte said. “Nairo Quintana had a fantastic day yesterday and I think he could easily have another good day tomorrow, likewise with Wilco Kelderman. You can't underestimate either of them so, if I am here tomorrow in the yellow jersey, I will be super happy. I have to be positive though and things have been going well so far so fingers crossed."
"Stefan [Kung] is in another league to everyone going into tomorrow. In the team time trial, he made the difference for us. Here's an incredible engine and he did another fantastic job today. I think he is the big favorite for tomorrow."
Today’s stage was fairly straightforward with Eddie Dunbar (Aqua Blue Sport), Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), Paul Ourselin (Direct Énergie) and Nathan Brown (EF-Drapac) escaping up the road five kilometres into the stage. They were never given much leash, at the most the gap was two minutes. The peloton got serious about the bunch sprint at around 30 km to go, finally reabsorbing the breakaway at around six kilometres left.
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