Nat Bromhead
He’s a well-known escape artist and at Stage 8 of the Tour de France he put on one of his all-time best vanishing acts.
With 14km to go Lotto Soudal’s Thomas De Gendt took off solo and held it ’til the end to claim a stunning victory in Saint-Etienne.
“We really wanted to have someone in the breakaway today,” De Gendt said after the finish. “The first attack in the peloton was the right one to form the break of the day and it was pretty easy to be part of it. Strange, because I was expecting a lot more fighting. Together with three other riders, I escaped, but the peloton never gave us much space. As for me, you don’t need a lot of advantage on this parcours; you just need to ride smart.”
“At 70 kilometres of the finish line, I decided to go solo,” De Gendt continued. “But as we got closer to the end, I was told that Alaphilippe and Pinot were in the chase. I know that especially Alaphilippe is a great descender, so I had to give everything I got. Because I was using almost the last energy I had left, I almost had to throw up, but luckily I didn’t break!”
2019 TDF Top 10 After Stage 8
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe – Deceuninck-QuickStep | ||
| 2 | Giulio Ciccone – Trek-Segafredo | ||
| 3 | Thibaut Pinot – Groupama-FDJ | ||
| 4 | George Bennett – Team Jumbo-Visma | ||
| 5 | Geraint Thomas – Team Ineos | ||
| 6 | Egan Bernal – Team Ineos | ||
| 7 | Steven Kruijswijk – Team Jumbo-Visma | ||
| 8 | Rigoberto Uran – EF Education First | ||
| 9 | Jakob Fuglsang – Astana Pro Team | ||
| 10 | Emanuel Buchmann – Bora-Hansgrohe |
