2026 Tour de France Stage 8 Results & Recap
Stage 8 of the 2026 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
In almost every way, stage eight proved to be a rerun of the previous day, right to its final moments when Tim Merlier (SOQ) came from a long way back to power past his rivals in the last 100 metres. At the line, the Belgian was a bike length clear of Biniam Girmay (NSN), with Olav Kooij (DCT) third and Jasper Philipsen (APT) fourth.
Coming into the final kilometre, XDS Astana Team and Alpecin-Premier Tech held the best positions, and it was Alpecin who took best advantage. Coming around the final right-hander with 500m left, Mathieu van der Poel (APT) was on the front with Philipsen on his wheel. Van der Poel led out in typically potent fashion, but, like yesterday, Philipsen didn't really get going.
Merlier and Kooij swept by on either side of him, the former coming from so far back it seemed unlikely that he'd be able to sustain his effort to the line. Yet it was Kooij who faded first and Merlier had gained enough ground to hold off Girmay at the line.
Like yesterday, the break of the day formed very quickly. Liam Slock (LOI) triggered it and the Belgian was joined by Jakub Otruba (CJR), repeating his breakaway exploit of 24 hours earlier, and Thibault Guernalec (TEN).
The trio didn't get much more freedom that Otruba and Baptiste Veistroffer (LOI) were allowed on stage 7, their advantage topping out at 2'15". Their collaboration broke down on the second of two cat 4 climbs, when Otruba attacked and dropped his companions, perhaps hoping he could secure the most combative rider prize he missed out on yesterday.
Slock bridged up to the Czech on the climb, then produced an attack of his own going over it, dropping his rival. With 40km to go and the bunch just two minutes in arrears, Slock's hopes of success were tiny, but that didn't stop him from giving absolutely everything that he had.
With 10km left, he was still a minute clear and the sprinters' teams were panicking. Most sent reinforcements up to the front of the bunch to help the pursuit and committing those numbers gradually paid off.
With 5km left, Slock's lead was 25 seconds and his lead continued to ebb until the catch was made with little more than a kilometre to go. Sadly for Slock, victory would go to another Belgian.
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