Tour de France 2022 LIVE result: Wout van Aert wins stage 8 in Lausanne sprint finish

Belgian Wout van Aert won the eighth stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, a hilly 186.3-km ride from Dole to Lausanne.

The Jumbo-Visma rider prevailed in a reduced bunch sprint at the top of the Cote du Stade Olympique, a 4.8-km effort at an average gradient of 4.6%.

Australian Michael Matthews was second while Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey by finishing third, picking up a four-second time bonus in the process.

Sunday’s ninth stage is a 192.9-km mountainous trek from Aigle, Switzerland, to Chatel.

1. Wout van Aert

2. Michael Matthews

3. Tadej Pogacar

4. Andreas Kron

5. Alberto Bettiol

An exhausted Michael Matthews has a microphone shoved under his nose:

“I was pinned,” says the Australian. “On a sprint like this two days ago I went too early. Second again! Wout van Aert was just too good. Hopefully I’m knocking on the door of that stage win.”

Michael Matthews surges first and Pogacar follows, but doesn’t have the sprint in his legs to get by. Then Van Aert appears around the outside and he does have the power, sealing his second stage win of the Tour in a charge to the line! Superb.

200m to go: Wout van Aert is right on Pogacar’s shoulder... Michael Matthews is there too, so many talented riders...

500m to go: Rafal Majka carried Pogacar to the finish yesterday and he is putting in another huge shift on the front here. Still no attacks, this is going down to the final few metres...

1km to go: UAE Emirates bring two of Pogacar’s teammates to the front to try and control this finish. It’s 12% gradient here and it’s all slowing down, with fans roaring on both sides of the road, before the final 4% stretch to the line...

1.5km to go: We near the final turn and rise to the line. Pogacar is on third wheel, but there are about 25 riders in this front group with their eyes on the prize...

2km to go: Nairo Quintana and Tom Pidcock are also up there – all sorts of different types of riders are in the mix here. No one has attacked off the front yet...

3km to go: Plenty of riders are losing contact with the contenders for the stage win at the front – the pace is high. Tadej Pogacar is right up there in yellow, and Wout van Aert’s green jersey is close by. Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic are close by too, as is Michael Matthews.