The Tour de France is becoming a one-man show

Mathieu van der Poel loses the yellow jersey, instead the 108th Tour de France turns into a one-man show for last year's winner Tadej Pogacar. The young Slovenian used the first Alpine stage for an impressive demonstration of power. Pogacar drove away from all rivals on Saturday when breakaway Dylan Teuns won the stage, grabbed the yellow jersey and seems hard to beat on the way to his second triumph in Paris.

On the 150,8 kilometer long eighth stage, Pogacar reached the finish in Le-Grand-Bornand in fourth place, 49 seconds behind Teuns. His biggest rivals, especially ex-Giro champion Richard Carapaz from Ecuador, could no longer follow him on the penultimate mountain and lost more than three minutes to the new Tour leader. Roglic knocked off As expected, van der Poel's triumphant journey ended in yellow after six days. Between the mountain giants in the Alps, Raymond Poulidor's grandson was at the end of his strength. In the overall standings, Pogacar is now 1:48 minutes ahead of the Belgian Wout van Aert. But that's not all: Pogacar's Slovenian compatriot and rival Primoz Roglic, who was an unfortunate runner-up last year, as well as former winner Geraint Thomas had to pay tribute to their serious fall injuries again and, with a huge gap, finally buried all hopes of the podium in Paris.

Dylan Teuns won the day. © APA/afp / PHILIPPE LOPEZ

The day's victory was secured by the Belgian Teuns, who was the last remaining escapee and saved over the last summit a few seconds ahead of Pogacar and then clinched his second Tour stage victory after 2019 with a furious descent. The Spaniard Ion Izaguirre and Michael Woods from Canada caught up with Pogacar on the descent and took second and third place.

The first mountain finish awaits the riders on Sunday. On the ninth stage from Cluses to Tignes, the last 21 kilometers climb an average of 5,6 percent. Before that, the Col du Pré, the first mountain in the highest category of the 2021 Tour, has to be tackled.

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The Tour de France is becoming a one-man show

The 108th Tour de France is threatened with boredom. Last year's winner Pogacar is in a league of its own. His rivals lose touch on the first Alpine stage. The Belgian Teuns wins the stage.

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