Fourth for Pascal Ackermann on stage 8 of the Tour de France
Pascal Ackermann took the best result of both his and Israel – Premier Tech’s Tour de France 2025 to date on Saturday, finishing fourth following a sprint royale in Laval.
Despite missing Guillaume Boivin, Krists Neilands, and Michael Woods to assist with the IPT train in the closing kilometers after the trio all suffered the misfortune of puncturing late on, Ackermann was able to cross the line narrowly behind stage winner Jonathan Milan (LTK), Wout Van Aert (TVL), and Kaden Groves (ADC) in the Mayenne.
After good work from Matîs Louvel helped position Ackermann as the race headed out of Laval and onto the wide roads to the north of the town where the finish line was located, Jake Stewart once again helped re-position the German for the finish.
“I think fourth place is quite OK,” he says. “The guys in front were quite strong. If you saw where I was coming from, we can really look forward to the next days.
“It was a super nervous and hectic final. At the roundabout with 3km to go, I unluckily lost Jake. I was so far back and he was looking good, so I said, ‘I’ll try to move up, but go for it yourself’. I came up perfectly from the back, maybe from 30th or 40th position, but it took a lot of energy.”
Reflecting on his lead-out for Ackermann, Stewart adds: “We can be happy where Ackie finished. We had a plan – we knew it was going to be kind of messy. But there was so much less stress than previous days, and the people who knew they didn’t have much chance in this sprint sat up today and gave us a bit more room in the final to do our jobs.
“I did a decent job for Ackie – he lost the wheel, then I managed to pick him up with 500 to go. I opened up the lead-out from there. We missed a bit for Ackie in the final, but we can be happy with how our day went.”
