Tour de France 2023: Mads Pedersen wins Stage 8 as Wout van Aert denied, Mark Cavendish crashes out

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) produced a monster sprint to win Stage 8 at the 2023 Tour de France as Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) suffered a heartbreaking crash to end his record bid. Pedersen held off Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck) in a fatiguing but fascinating finish as Jumbo-Visma's hard work to tee up Wout van Aert came to nothing, as the Belgian was boxed in by his own leadout rider before beginning his sprint.

Ad The stage was completed ahead of the fastest expected schedule, and began as it would go on, with a large number of teams and riders eager to get away, in the hope a break could be allowed to stick. The eventual stage winner was among those who tried, only to abandon his efforts when it became clear that the sprint teams were determined for it to finish with a large — or at most a reduced — group gallop.

Tour de FranceCavendish breaks collarbone as crash ends Tour de France record bid4 HOURS AGO That meant just three was deemed by the peloton to be an acceptably-sized group of escapees. The trio — Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), Anthony Delaplace (Arkea Samsic) and Tim Declercq (Soudal-Deceuninck) — were strong and wiley enough to have more of a chance than most.

Rather than the peloton putting down the shutters, and slamming on the brakes, they built a four-minute lead through sheer brute force, riding at just shy of 50kph for the first two hours of the stage. Only then did the peloton begin to show concern that things were getting out of hand, Jumbo Visma sending Dutch road champion Dylan van Baarle to the front to manage the situation.