Tim Merlier produced a scintillating finish on Stage 8 of the 2026 Tour de France on Saturday to secure his second successive sprint victory.
The Soudal Quick-Step rider followed up his win in Bordeaux after a sensational turn of speed saw him cross the finish line first again 24 hours later ahead of second place Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team), with Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) – who triumphed on Stage 5 – in third.
That made it two wins in two days for Belgian rider Merlier, the first sprinter to achieve that feat since Jasper Philipsen, who came in fourth here for Alpecin-Premier Tech, back in 2023.
“I had to fight for position all the time and until the last metre,” said Merlier. “Just before the corner I was a bit boxed in, and then they almost crashed.
“I thought it was over but I gave it a try to come back to the guys who did the lead-out and I was coming with so much speed.
“I saw it was 250m and I said 'give it a try until the finish and we'll see'. But even in the last 50m, I couldn't push any more. Mostly when you win one, you can win a second. I'm happy that from three [sprint] stages I can count two wins.”
Thibault Guernalec, Jakub Otruba and Liam Slock made an early breakaway while the general classification (GC) contenders stayed back in the peloton.
Belgian Slock (Lotto-Intermarche), who made his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a Espana last year, launched an attack during the climb to Buisson de Cadouin and took a solo lead with about 40km left.
The peloton began to chip away at his lead in the last 10 kilometres, with the NSN, Decathlon-CMA CGM and Uno-X Mobility riders taking turns at the front of the group, and Slock was finally caught just before the final kilometre.
After a final right turn, the Alpecin – Premier Tech team set up Philipsen for the final sprint. But Merlier was waiting, about 10 riders behind, for the moment to launch his attack.
In the GC, UAE Team Emirates-XRG's four-time champion Tadej Pogacar enjoyed a quiet day in the peloton with no changes at the top after the flat 180.4km ride from Perigueux to Bergerac.
Just to highlight Pogacar's dominance over the cycling world at present, his failure to win on Stage 8 will match the reigning world champion's longest run without a victory since last September – at just two racing days.
And the Slovenian already had two wins to his name this year – Stages 3 and 6, with the latter a masterclass performance that the 27-year-old would describe as “one of my top five wins … a really incredible victory” after regaining the yellow jersey from Torstein Traeen (Decathlon CMA CGM).
That has seen him flip a 7 mins 53 secs gap between him and the Norwegian race leader at the start of the day, into a 2 mins 42 secs lead over Vingegaard at the end after Traeen crashed and then dropped out of the race with concussion and multiple rib fractures.
After flat stages of the previous two days, Sunday's Stage 9 is an up and down 185.5km route from Malemort to Ussel featuring 3,300m of elevation gain. Monday see's the first rest day of this year's race.
Stage 8 results
1. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) 3:52:50
2. Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team) ”
3. Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) ”
4. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) ”
5. Pavel Bittner (Team Picnic PostNL) ”
General classification
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 28:49:07
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) +2:42
3. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG +3:27)
4. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) – +3:30
5. Juan Ayuso (Lidl – Trek) +3:34
