Stage 8 sees the Tour de France head out of northern and north-western France towards the Loire, for its rendezvous with the Massif Central and eventually with the Pyrenees.
It's a flattish stage, although the 1,700m of elevation gain over the 171km route points to more climbing than that suggests – and the finish line comes after a deceptive final kilometre.
Stage 8: Saint-Méen-le-Grand > Laval Espace Mayenne
- Date: 12 July
- Distance: 171.4km
- Elevation gain: 1,700m
- Stage type: Flat
Route profile
Route map
Following two exacting days in the saddle, today is the first of two stages favouring the sprinters, as the race transitions from the hilly northwest to the mountainous Massif Central.
It’s unusual for flat stages to be scheduled on both days of a weekend, but following Friday’s high-profile stage 7 and Monday’s brutal stage in the Massif Central being a public holiday (Bastille Day), the race can afford it.
Saint-Méen – pronounced ‘Min’ – is the birthplace of Louison Bobet, the French great of the 1950s, who was the first rider to win three consecutive Tours de France (1953-1955).
The finish is in the town of Laval, at the Espace Mayenne arena, which opened in 2021 when a Tour stage finished there, won by Tadej Pogačar in an individual time trial as he began to stamp his authority on that edition of the race.
“This is a very flat stage heading out of Brittany and into Mayenne on roads that are, for the most part, sheltered from the wind,” says race director Christian Prudhomme.
“All of the ingredients are there for the sprint teams to take control of the race.
“The likelihood is that the stage will finish with a bunch sprint, although the profile of the likely contenders could well be restricted by one specific feature – the finish line comes at the end of a kilometre-long, rising false flat.”
What's on the stage?
The Tour may have left Brittany for the Mayenne departément, sandwiched between it and the Loire (of which it’s a part administratively), but gastronomically the Mayenne is closer to Brittany and Normandy. Cider is still on the menu, but accompanied by local cheeses, made from milk from cows grazed on the lush fields. It also has a specialism in artisan chocolate.
Laval is another place I passed through on my cycle tour through northern France. The next stop was the aptly named La Flèche, meaning 'the arrow'. The road from Laval to La Flèche was as dead straight as the proverbial and undulated for 70km. Get to the top of one hill and you could see the road cresting the next, and the next, and the next…
Fortunately, the Tour skips the country between Laval and the Loire.
One to watch: Tim Merlier
This looks like another stage for the sprinters, despite the uphill finish. Tim Merlier bested Jonathan Milan on stage 3 and, with his cyclocross background, he could have the punch to outride him on this stage, too.
