Le. Tour. De. France.
Certainly for Stage 8 you can pretty much forget anything that came before the climbing though Simon Yates had a big breakaway and maintained it almost through the first climb, Col de la Croix des Moinats, when Blel Kadri and Sébastien Chavanel started the charge of the mountaineers with a breakaway of their own. At this point conditions were pretty miserable and it didn’t really stop raining for the rest of the stage. Speaking of the Mountain men it was the day Alberto Contador started to make his move and I would have expected something more decisive than a 2nd place finish a mere 3 seconds ahead of Vincenzo Nibali in 3rd. Another interesting story is Sky’s Richie Porte. Second to team Leader Chris Froome who is now of course out, he had a really good ride, finishing 4th on the stage and is now in 3rd place in the General Classification 29 seconds ahead of Contador.
Andrew Talansky crashed again, this time after tangling with Sky’s Geraint Thomas (along with Yates the only 2 British riders left). Mathias Frank of IAM did not start and Bart De Clercq of Lotto did not finish.
As always the first day in the Mountains shakes things up a bit. On the stage it was Blel Kadri for the first French win, Alberto Contador (2:17), Vincenzo Nibali (2:20), Riche Porte (2:24), Thibaut Pinot tied with Jean-Christophe Peraud (2:28), Alejandro Valverde BelMonte (2:36), Tejay Van Garderen (2:40), Romain Bardet (2:48), Sylvain Chavanel (2:54), and Bauke Mollema (2:55). There were 16 riders between 3 and 4 minutes behind. In the General Classification it is Vincenzo Nibali, Jakob Fuglsang (1:44), Riche Porte (1:58), Michal Kwiatkowski (2:26), Alejandro Valverde BelMonte (2:27), Alberto Contador (2:34), Romain Bardet (2:39), Rui Alberto Costa (2:52). There are 7 other riders less than 4 minutes behind. In the Point competition Peter Sagan (267), Bryan Coquard (156), Marcel Kittel (146), Alexander Kristoff (117), Mark Renshaw (101), and André Greipel (98). The next nearest (Vincenzo Nibali) is 23 points behind. In the Climber contest it is Blel Kadri (17), Cyril Lemoine and Sylvain Chavanel (6), Simon Yates (5). For the Teams it stands at Astana, Belkin (5:23), and Sky (5:31). Everyone else is over 10 minutes out. The Youth competition is Michal Kwiatkowski, Romain Bardet (:13), and Thibaut Pinot (1:06). Everyone else is over 9 minutes behind.
Today is Mountains for real, about 106 miles of them.
| Distance | Name | Length | Category |
| Km 11.5 | Col de la Schlucht (1 140 m) | 8.6 km @ 4.5% | 2 |
| Km 41.0 | Col du Wettstein | 7.7 km @ 4.1% | 3 |
| Km 70.0 | Côte des Cinq Châteaux | 4.5 km @ 6.1% | 3 |
| Km 86.0 | Côte de Gueberschwihr (559 m) | 4.1 km @ 7.9% | 2 |
| Km 120.0 | Le Markstein (1 183 m) | 10.8 km @ 5.4% | 1 |
| Km 127.0 | Grand Ballon | 1.4 km @ 8.6% | 3 |
The Sprint Checkpoint is after the 2 Category 2s and 2 Category 3s and is uphill on a Category 1. Pretty tough sprint if you ask me. They finish flat after a descent so there might be some opportunity there for speed if a rider has kept up to that point. On La Fête Nationale tomorrow they spend their last day in the Vosges and Tuesday is a rest day.
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