Tour de France Stage 8: Two in a row for Dylan Groenewegen (+ video)

Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) joined Fernando Gaviria and Peter Sagan on two stage wins in this year’s race after his second bunch sprint victory in a row. Sagan retains the green jersey, while André Greipel and Gaviria were relegated after clashes in the finale.

With the cobbles tomorrow and then a series of mountain stages next week, the 181km stage from Dreux to Amiens was the last chance the sprinters will get for a little while now. The break was therefore given little leeway and despite a brief late attack by Philippe Gilbert, a bunch sprint was all but inevitable.

Just as on stage seven, Groenewegen roared past his rivals, but Greipel and Gaviria were the subject of most post-race discussion after tussling with a few hundred metres to go.

Greipel, in particular, was unhappy to be relegated - although he seems unaware that he was actually punished for an incident earlier in the sprint where he had leaned into a Sunweb rider using his head.

nothing more to say about that decision of the jury-when you do your sprint you keep a line-I have no eyes in my back and I don’t let myself get pushed out of the way from nobody-hard to accept to get already robbed for the stage win and now the commissaries even take away 2nd???

— Andre Greipel (@AndreGreipel) July 14, 2018

Groenewegen said: "My legs are better every day. I felt great today. Even though we lost my lead out man Timo Roosen in a crash, my team positioned me very well behind Greipel. That was the right choice. I’m very proud of my team and myself.

"I didn't have very good legs the first two days of the Tour, possibly because I paid for my efforts in the Dutch national championship that was a very hard race. But I keep improving since. I’d like to win on the Champs-Elysées again but that’s a long way away and we have a hard stage on the cobblestones tomorrow to think of first."

Stage six winner, Dan Martin, lost 1m15s after a crash with 17km to go.

Speaking shortly after the finish, a UAE Team Emirates spokesman said that once Martin's wounds had been cleaned, he would be sent for an X-ray.

17 km
Crash in the peloton !
Chute dans le peloton ! #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/edEtvK2hdx

— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 14, 2018