Tour de France

Stage 8: Saint-Méen-le-Grand - Laval

FR France Saturday 12 July 2025 174 km

No luck for Merlier at Le Tour

No luck for Merlier at Le Tour

The Tour de France returned to Laval – where current Soudal Quick-Step sports director won a bunch sprint in 1999 – but the outcome was different this time, as Tim Merlier couldn’t contest the uphill bunch sprint in the charming city located in the Pays de la Loire region.

Completely flat, with the exception of a small classified climb in the final part, the stage was a quiet one, animated by a late two-man breakaway that took off around 60 kilometers from the line and remained off the front until the closing ten kilometers. Tim Merlier started the day as one of the main favourites, especially after his win on the third stage, but the European Champion’s plans were derailed by a puncture with 12 kilometers to go, which required him to change the bike.

Merlier had to chase hard in order to come back to the peloton, and that effort took its toll as the speed increased in the bunch on the uphill finish in Laval. The Belgian couldn’t contest the sprint, won by Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and came home a couple of seconds later. His Soudal Quick-Step teammate Remco Evenepoel concluded with the group and kept hold of the white jersey, at the same time, remaining in second place overall.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Jonathan Milan
Lidl - Trek
3:50:26
2 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:00
3 Kaden Groves
Alpecin - Deceuninck
0:00
4 Pascal Ackermann
Israel - Premier Tech
0:00
5 Arnaud De Lie
Lotto
0:00
6 Tobias Lund Andresen
Team Picnic PostNL
0:00
7 Bryan Coquard
Cofidis
0:00
8 Alberto Dainese
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
0:00
9 Vincenzo Albanese
EF Education - EasyPost
0:00
10 Stian Fredheim
Uno-X Mobility
0:00
29 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:00
48 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
0:00
56 Tim Merlier
Soudal Quick-Step
0:23
65 Pascal Eenkhoorn
Soudal Quick-Step
0:41
82 Bert Van Lerberghe
Soudal Quick-Step
0:53
100 Maximilian Schachmann
Soudal Quick-Step
1:11
102 Valentin Paret-Peintre
Soudal Quick-Step
1:11

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