Racing

Tour de France Daily | Stage 8 | Vincenzo Albanese spars with the sprinters in Laval

Italian crosses the line in ninth

July 12, 2025

Vincenzo Albanese pushed his way to the front of the peloton to try his luck in the sprint at the finish of stage 8 of the Tour de France.

The Italian surged up the left side of the peloton, as the race tore under the red kite marking one kilometer to go. In his first Tour de France, Vincenzo wanted to finish off the work done for him by his teammates Kasper Asgreen and Michael Valgren. He accelerated all the way to the line and crossed it in ninth place.

It was a solid show of form for the Italian sprinter, who is better suited to hard uphill drags like the finish where he won at the Tour de Suisse. Vincenzo is looking forward to his next chance to sprint at this Tour de France.

Our other racers stayed tucked in the peloton to save their energy for hillier opportunities. With temperatures soaring well over 30 degrees celsius, today was all about cooling and fueling and not wasting a pedal stroke.

Read our riders’ thoughts from the finish line of stage 8 of the Tour de France.

Vincenzo Albanese

For the last 20 to 30 kilometers, I was in a good position. Thanks to Kasper and Michael for that great job. It was an intense finish. I feel good. I am happy to finish inside the top ten. It was very special for me to be in this sprint at the Tour de France.

Neilson Powless

It was super fast, but you could at least get a good sit in the peloton. If you weren’t sprinting, it did not feel that intense. We are happy to get home safe today. There were a couple of crashes, but all of us stayed upright. Alba had a really good sprint, with a top 10 finish.

Marijn van den Berg

For a sprint stage, it was actually not so bad, because of the really big roads and the up and downs. The peloton was more stretched out, which was nice. Michael had a flat tire, so I fought a bit and went to the front to give Albanese a bit of a push into the last few 100 meters. I’m still recovering from my crash, but on a day like this, I could at least do a little bit. That was enough for today.

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