Biniam Girmay takes his second victory in the Tour de France 2024

Anodine 8th stage of the Tour de France 2024 that, despite what could be foreseen from the route, the peloton ended up taking it very calmly, partly due to the complicated weather conditions they had to face, which led to a new sprint outcome that fell into the hands of Biniam Girmay.

Rain dampened the gunpowder of the Tour de France 2024 peloton

After yesterday's time trial, the day presented itself rainy for the Tour de France 2024 peloton, the perfect excuse to face the stage calmly under the maxim that prevails in every grand tour of saving energy whenever possible. Something important when there are still two weeks of racing left and tomorrow the cyclists will have to face the challenging stage with dirt roads around Troyes.

A shame because the route of this 8th stage of the Tour de France 2024, which connected Semur en Auxois and Colobey les Deux Eglises in a 183-kilometer route, could have offered much more excitement than it finally did since it was a hilly route through narrow roads and a profile full of small climbs.

The day started promisingly with the attack in the first instance of Jonas Abrahamsen accompanied by the cyclists from EF Education-EasyPost Bissegger and Powless and, instead of the fierce battle expected to catch the breakaway, the peloton stopped allowing this breakaway to prosper.

Incomprehensibly, despite having two men in front, EF Education-EasyPost did not find the breakaway useful and put their men to work in the peloton, to reduce the gap and launch Ben Healy. However, the Irishman was caught in no man's land and could not reach the front. The tactical nonsense culminated when Bissegger and Powless voluntarily dropped back from the front to be caught by the peloton, leaving the mountain leader Jonas Abrahamsen in the lead, who was facing a perfect opportunity to collect all the points from the five categorized climbs of the day.

From there, the stage was practically a walk for the peloton, with the escapee having up to 6 minutes of advantage at one point, although his lead began to decrease as the kilometers passed, with his adventure dying just over 14 kilometers before the finish.

Only the winner of the sprint remained to be determined, a finish that had a slight incline and where Intermarché-Wanty perfectly positioned Biniam Girmay in the last kilometer. Jasper Philipsen launched the sprint but decisively, in this Tour de France 2024, the Belgian was not at his best level and despite his powerful start, he ran out of steam a few meters from the finish line, being overtaken clearly by the Eritrean cyclist who becomes, for the moment, the king of speed in this 2024 edition of the Tour de France. Third, Arnaud de Lie once again came close, showing strength but, once again, he got stuck without a chance to come back.

Stage 8 Classification

1. Biniiam Girmay (Intermaché-Wanty) 4h04'50''
2. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00''
3. Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-Dstny) +00''
4. Pascal Ackermann (Israel-PremierTech) +00''
5. Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) +00''
6. Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek) +00''
7. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) +00''
8. Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) +00''
9. Alex Aranburu (Movistar Team) +00''
10. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +00''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 31h21'13''
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +33''
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'15''
4. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1'36''
5. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +2'16''
6. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +2'17''
7. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +2'31''
8. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) +3'35''
9. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) +4'03''
10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +4'36''