Jonathan Milan, who has made a name as one of the fastest sprinters in the world since he joined Lidl-Trek 18 months ago, took the spoils ahead of Wout van Aert in a tricky bunch sprint in Laval to win Stage 8 of the 2025 Tour de France.
A pan-flat parcours presented about as much of a nailed-on sprint stage as possible. The intermediate sprint – this time with all 20 points up for grabs – gave a taste of what was to come: Milan took the spoils and further secured his hold on the green jersey.
The remainder of the stage proved uneventful until the sprint trains geared up for the charge to the line. The breakaway duo of teammates Mathieu Burgaudeau & Matteo Vercher (Total Energies) was absorbed with 10km remaining, leaving the sprinters to jostle for position. The chaotic run-in to the finish of stage 8 meant the normally-regimented leadout trains were more jumbled than normal, but nevertheless Lidl-Trek managed to position Milan at the head of affairs.
First, a big effort by Jasper Stuyven took Milan from mid-pack to the front, before Simone Consonni, and Stuyven again gave their last watts to set Milan on the path to victory. The Italian still had a bit to do himself before he could launch the sprint, and he picked the wheel of Mathieu van der Poel to pull him towards the line. From there, Milan hit the gas, his trademark sprint style front and center, and none could even attempt to come around him.
“I knew that with this team, with their experience, how they know how to guide me, how to bring me in the best position, that we could have soon a good result, so this morning we really all started super motivated for this stage,” Milan told the media. “My teammates, they really guided me in a perfect way. They really gave the best of themselves to guide me. And, yeah, I just had to sprint.
“Yeah, you know, I think I didn’t still understand what we did. To come with some expectations and some dreams to bring home. Then, you know, to [achieve] them and to bring them home is, they’re two different things, but I was confident with the team and we were really close in the last stage. I mean, not in the first one, but in the third one, we were pretty close to the victory. We know that we just went a bit too early, but today, we were really focused. We were really believing in it. My guys did an amazing job until the final. It was a really tough final, I have to say, a bit stressful, but I was not expecting that it was dragging up so much the last kilometer, kilometer and a half. I knew that I had to wait as long as I could, but yeah, I like this kind of finals. I was really, really happy for the work that we did. We really deserve it,” he concluded.
Stage 8 Brief Results:
- Jonathan Milan (Lidl – Trek) @ 3h 50’26”
- Wout Van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) s.t
- Kaden Groves (Alpecin – Deceuninck) s.t.
- Pascal Ackermann (Israel – Premier Tech) s.t.
- Arnaud de Lie (Lotto) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 8
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) @ 29h 48′ 30”
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), +54”
- Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), +1’11”
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), +1’17”
- Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), +1’29”
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