The Tour in 10: Stage 8, Tour de France 2026

The God's Medicine team brings you a recap of Saturday's sprint stage and a preview of Malemort to Ussel, with updated information for the truncated parcours announced due to heat concerns. 

Transcript

Godsmedicinecycling 0:00

Hannah, please. It's Côte de la Croix." Hello everyone, and welcome back to Gods, Medicine, Cycling podcast. I am your host, Lauren. I'm here with my co-host, Hannah, and we are back with the Tour in 10. I'm gonna give you guys a spoiler. It's not gonna be an equal split today. We are gonna blitz through this stage because not that much happened. Hannah, take it away. Give us our top 10 and the overall standings

hannah 0:25

Stage eight, Perigueux to Bergerac, was a sprint stage. Winning for the second day in a row, we have Tim Merlier. In second place, Biniam Girmay. In third, Olav Kooij. Fourth, Jasper Philipsen. In fifth, with a really nice sprint actually, Pavel Bittner. Sixth, Plumer for Tudor. In seventh, Ackermann for Jayco. In eighth, we have Clément Russo. In ninth, Max Kanter. And in 10th, Frattan for Cofidis. Our overall standings basically have not changed. The GC, youth, and polka dot classifications are more or less exactly the same as yesterday. I think one guy took one KOM point today. So in GC, Tadej Pogačar is out in front. Isaac Del Toro leads the youth classification. And Pogačar is again leading the polka dot classification as well. Vingegaard will continue to wear that jersey on his behalf. We did have some shakeups in the green jersey race. Tim Merlier is starting to close the gap on Mads Pedersen. Pedersen is going to need as many intermediate sprint points as he can get from now on if he wants a chance at this thing. He is still in first place and will wear the green jersey tomorrow with 228 points. But Tim Merlier is hot on his heels with 213 points. Biniam Girmay is in third with 203. Jasper Philipsen is in fourth with 175, and Max Kanter rounds out our top five with 172

Godsmedicinecycling 1:37

How did they get there? The question everybody is asking. We had an early breakaway. Liam Slock went for Lotto, then we had Thibaut Pinot for Total, and Jacopo Truba, who keen viewers may remember from yesterday when he was also out front for many, many kilometers. This was the race for a long time. Those three guys were out in front. They had about two minutes, and then we had the peloton behind. At 41 kilometers to go, Truba attacked before the last KOM point of the day. Slock ended up outpacing him. It was sort of an ill-timed attack, and he took the solo lead. that became the new race situation. Behind, there was some piecemeal attacking, including from EF and Jonas Abrahamsson. And for a hot second, the sort of front part of the peloton detached, but then everything came back together with, Liam Slock, out front. That held until functionally 9.2Ks. Slock had about a minute on the peloton who were not that organized. The sprint teams were chasing, but Lotto was also doing a pretty good job trying to be in there and disrupt. Unfortunately, though, the breakaway was ultimately doomed. At 1.4Ks, he gave up and everything slowed down a notch. And then at the last 800 meters, the pace came back up with Jasper Philipsen and MVDP at the front. We had Astana there. We had Olav Kooij. We had Mads Pedersen moving up. At 450 to go, MVDP launches with Philipsen behind, What ultimately happens is van der Poel stops his lead out, but Philipsen has nowhere to go. Kooij is coming up to one side of him, Merlier is coming up on the other side of him. Van der Poel doesn't have room to make a big swing off. you already know what happens. Merlier came first, Girma came actually out of that bunch to win second, and then Olav Kooij and Philipsen. Pedersen fell off somewhere in this lead up. He was nowhere to be found

3:27

looking ahead to tomorrow, we at God's Medicine are excited for Stage 9, Matamorth to Ussel, which was originally scheduled to be a 185.5 kilometer stage with 3,300 meters of climbing. Because of the extreme heat expected in the region, this stage has been reduced now to 155.5 kilometers, but it appears from the updated map that most of the climbing will remain intact for the day. The changes to the route mostly come straight off of the départ. The sprinters will be grateful that the intermediate sprint comes early on into the route before the many categorized climbs hit. First, riders tackle the Cat 3 Côte de Navre, which is 2.3 kilometers at 7.4%, and from there the road keeps going up and down and up and down, first with the Cat 2 Sucome, 3.8 kilometers at 7.7%, then the Cat 3 Côte de la Croix du Pays, 4.8 kilometers at 6%, and the final climb of the day, The Cat 4 Mont Bessou, 900 meters at 7.3%. After Mont Bessou, there are a few little kickers into an uphill finish at Ussel, which will provide potential final launch pads for late attacks.

Godsmedicinecycling 4:28

The usual 25 points will be on offer for that intermediate sprint winner, and we would be fools at this point to not expect Mads Pedersen to try and get into a move to snatch these points up. Biniam Girmay will probably try and go with him, and honestly, we expect anyone who can hang to be there, too. Philipsen, if he, is feeling good, can definitely get through these first uncategorized climbs of the day. There are also a nice array of King of the Mountains points to be won tomorrow, the most tantalizing of which are the five points on the first to summit the Souque Aume. Anybody who's trying to do a KOM campaign could be in that breakaway and try and mop up some of those points. On past stages, as we've said, we've seen Valentin Paret-Peintre, Alex Baudin, and Lenny Martinez contest the KOM. Of those three, this stage is perhaps best suited to Boden. We might see some of them go for it. It isn't that classic climbing, stage though. It is more of an on and off terrain, so we're not quite sure who will end up in that breakaway

hannah 5:26

Regardless, this stage has breakaway stamped all over it in flashing neon lights. The early uncategorized climbs should give the punchier riders a chance to create separation early, and this could be a stage for a big group to take it all the way to the finish with some late attacks. There are some significant time gaps on GC after the Tourmalet a few days ago, so there are plenty of riders who may now have a long enough leash to go on a raid.

Godsmedicinecycling 5:47

In terms of movers and shakers, and keep in mind we may see multiple breakaways over the course of this day. We might see one breakaway that gets reeled in. We might see one breakaway that's ahead and another go off the back. So a lot of riders are about to be mentioned, okay? And that's not cheating, and if you have a problem with it, then you can email us at godswitnessesincycling.gmail.com, I want to start off with just a bunch of guys from various different teams who have looked good, who might be in a move. We have Sean Quinn, Egan Bernal, Ilan Van Wilder, Tom Pidcock, and Tobias Hall and Johannessen. These guys have all now dropped to between 9 and 10 minutes behind on GC, so they might not be chased and could make a break. Pidcock hasn't made any big moves so far in this tour, and it sounds from his press like might now be leaning more towards stage wins rather than trying to go for GC. Tobias Hall and Johannessen didn't have the climbing legs he wanted on the Tourmalet, so he may also be rejigging his plans. Quinn, Bernal, and Van Wilder have all looked very strong so far. And also, let's not forget about Lenny Van Eetvelt

hannah 6:46

Ineos, I will say, has a good option in Bernal. They want stage wins. They're here for stage wins. that's very clear at this point. We gotta shout out one Michal Kwiatkowski. This seems like prime Quieado terrain. we saw him, I think it was two years ago, do a three up sprint. He lost it to Victor Campenaerts, but that was on a stage that was rocking and rolling in a not dissimilar way to this one. Might we see it again? I, I certainly hope so. I don't know if this stage is hard enough for Arensman to give it a go, but Ineos could also have good options in Foss or perhaps even Pipo

Godsmedicinecycling 7:18

Yeah, I think, I don't know if Pippo Ganna would make it to the end, but if they were trying to make something happen, you know, to get people off the front, you would probably want him there. Let's talk about Movistar. I don't understand them. Who does? They'll probably be trying to put somebody in the break whether or not it makes sense. Moving on.

hannah 7:34

you know whose name is kind of written all over this stage? I think this could be a really good one for Luke Plapp. He went for it on stage three, but he didn't make the right move. He was in a breakaway for a while, but it wasn't the one that went to the end. So I could see him trying his hand for a second time here

Godsmedicinecycling 7:48

Quinn Simmons has looked really active. If Mads Pedersen is trying to jump for that intermediate sprint, I could see Simmons going with him, maybe going off the front after it. in shape. He, he looks good. Why not?

hannah 7:58

He might even take Vacek with him again. They were great together. This is a really punchy stage, so Gregoire could try to be in this move. Mathieu van der Poel would kind of be the obvious pick. He has looked really good doing lead outs for Philipsen for the last two days. So it looks like maybe he's started to recover from... the really intense heat in the first week. But he also said that he hasn't felt his best, so maybe he's lying to us, maybe he's telling the truth. If he's lying to us, he could make big moves tomorrow

Godsmedicinecycling 8:24

I wish more riders would lie about how they feel to the press for gamesmanship reasons.

hannah 8:28

You know who literally always does that and who we miss dearly? Primož Roglič

Godsmedicinecycling 8:32

Primož Roglič, "Oh, I have bad legs. I have bad

hannah 8:35

His, his legs are always bad, and yet

Godsmedicinecycling 8:37

Fred Wright. Maybe Fred Wright could be out here. I think that you just like Fred Wright. But I think he is in shape coming into this, so it would be nice to see a spark from him. Maybe he should make a go for it

hannah 8:50

I think he has also not been dealing well with the heat. I'm also sort of thinking it would be advantageous if Tom Pitcock wants to make a move for him to have a teammate, and Fred Wright could be a good candidate.

Godsmedicinecycling 8:59

they might throw anyone in there if Pitcock is gonna make a move

hannah 9:02

Absolutely true. Quentin Hermans, we are watching you

Godsmedicinecycling 9:05

Hello, Quentin

hannah 9:05

Speaking of writers we're, we've got our eyes on, Tej it Tej time?

Godsmedicinecycling 9:09

You know, I don't know if Decathlon is gonna let him go, but he has legs, And I like him, so therefore I am manifesting on this podcast, Thieшь hilly stage win. You heard it here first

hannah 9:21

You know what's a GC team that has been giving at least one rider kind of a leash? Bora has let Jan Tratnik kind of do what he wants. I think this is wise because I think Tratnik is a very experienced rider who knows when to go and when not to go, and he has very good race sense. I think he should take Van Hils with him this time

Godsmedicinecycling 9:37

I'd like to talk about Jasper Stuyven. He's looked really good. He's been doing good work in the lead outs. I mean, uh, he's been positioning himself well for longer than some of these riders have been in the Peloton. I think he looks in shape. He's got a brain on him. He knows when to make the right move. I like Stuyven

hannah 9:54

Yeah, and I think this is good terrain for him. I think I'll caveat, most of the team of Lotto could try to do something tomorrow. we'll give our man from the break today, Liam Slock, a break. Yeah, we'll give him a day off. He, he really put in a shift today, that being said, the likes of Hubarts, Georg Zimmermann, maybe Weistroff again, any of these guys could find themselves up the road

Godsmedicinecycling 10:12

So now that we've listed half the Peloton, thank you so much for tuning into God's Medicine for the Tour in 10. We are so excited because we love a breakaway, so clear your schedules for tomorrow, and I also want to say now, clear your schedules for next weekend. It's back-to-back mountain stages. You still have time to cancel those plans. Okay, we will be back with you later with our recap of tomorrow's stage and our preview of the next one, which will be on Tuesday because Monday is the rest day, by the way, on Monday, the rest day, we will be releasing a longer podcast with more analysis and absolutely no recapping what's been going on because you guys have heard it all already. So please watch out for that. It will be right here on, God's Medicine Cycling Podcast page, and we look forward to having you guys listen to that