A regulation intermediate mountains stage last night with a lone survivor from the day’s break holding off the heads of state of the Tour de France in the closing 20km. The winner of Stage 8, a short but punchy 157.5km journey from Belfort to Porrentruy was won by one of the wunderkids of French cycling, Thibault Pinot. He defied Cadel Evans by 26 seconds, with the Australian second for the second straight day, while another Frenchman Tony Gallopin was third. Bradley Wiggins was close behind in 4th to ensure he lost no time to Evans and retained the Yellow Jersey going into tomorrow’s time trial.
The big news of the day however was the crash that saw defending Olympic Gold Medallist Sammy Sanchez retire from the race. Brought down by fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (his third crash in as many days), early reports are that Sanchez has a broken collarbone and a dislocated shoulder. There is almost no chance he will be fit to defend his Olympic title in London – an extremely sad result for all of cycling.
The other interesting development was in the Youth Classification, as Rein Taaramae was unable to back up yesterday’s strong performance, finishing over 2 minutes down on Pinot on the day. While at least this suggests he is not on the gear, it does mean his lead in that competition has been reduced to just 46 seconds from Gallopin and Pinot. However, I’d back Taaramae to be more consistent over the three weeks (and he is ok against the clock) so he must still be the favourite to win that classification. With 7 mountains on the day’s stage it was always going to be one for King of the mountains points – and in the end Pinot’s breakaway companion Fredrik Kessiakoff did enough to take the jersey off the shoulders of yesterday’s winner Chris Froome by a single point. The green jersey was a non-issue on the day.
Other than that there is not much more to add as we look forward to tonight’s potentially Tour deciding time trial.
Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins
Green Jersey – Peter Sagan
Polka Dot Jersey – Fredrik Kessiakoff
White Jersey – Rein Taaramae
Brock McLean Tweet of the day
@Cyclocosm – Yesssss! Eff this radio BS. White-haired DS screaming out of the window is the only way to give encouragement. Plus 30 watts at least. #tdf
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