The eighth stage of the Tour de France was held in Switzerland, and after three consecutive days of cobbles, hills, and mountains on the GC and back, the race appeared to have settled down a bit.

The 186-km travel segment across the border to Lausanne was expected to be the second time this year that a breakaway group had succeeded.

Bahraini winner Fred Wright, who was competing in his second Tour de France, was ultimately unfruitful, along with Mattia Cattaneo (Quick-Step Alphavinil) and Frederic Frisson (Lotto-Soudal).

The 23-year-old Briton was the last man standing when Frison fell with about 60 km to go and Cattaneo fell with 8 km to go. Wright, however, continued to fight valiantly and rode alone until the final climb, 3 km from the finish.

"The other day I was thinking about trying this stage. So I had a lot of energy in my head, and I was like, 'Okay, I'm going for the break.'"

"I was really excited about it."

"Then there were only three people. I thought people would come, but they didn't. But I thought, 'I've put the bed to bed, let's just focus on this,' and I played pretty well."

Wright turned to Soignier after the interview and said it was "an absolute pisstake" to be the last one off the stage from the break to miss the Combat Award, but before he got caught He was happy to have made it to the final climb and said he was glad he was not caught at a more attractive point in the final, as Leonard Kemna was caught on Friday.

"I relaxed at one point, but I used drills to try to get a little more time down. 'I kept believing, but it wasn't to be. But I was happy I could hold it to the bottom of the climb. But I was happy to hold on to the bottom of the climb."

"With 5km to go, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this with 500m to go, but luckily I caught him a bit earlier."

With Bahraini leader Jack Haig crashing on the cobbled fifth stage, the team had to support Damiano Caruso The team had to support Damiano Caruso.

But that does not mean taking no chances, as riders like Wright, Dylan Tuns, and Matej Mohoric have been very effective in the Tour in recent years.

"It's clear that Damiano is there and he's a big focus for us. He's a big focus for us," Wright said. 'We're going to have full GC support for Damiano, and we're also going to make sure that the other guys can move freely. Yeah, there's a lot more to come.

"We have some more mountains to climb after the next rest day, but I think we have some opportunities after that. I don't want to tell the world, but I want to get in a couple of runs. Definitely, I think we still have a chance."