The French green jersey contender, Arnaud Démare, is still plugging away out there in his attempt to avoid the cut off time and disqualification from the Tour. That time is set at 46 minutes I believe, so he should just make it. But for more details check out William Fotheringham’s report on here shortly. I’m off now. Thanks for your company. Here’s how tomorrow’s proper mountain stage looks.
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What a stage that was. A super-quick start in which the breakaway, well, couldn’t break away for quite some time. The pace of today’s stage was gruelling and will have taken quite a bit out of the riders who have to tackle the fierce 181km stage nine from Nantua to Chambéry, which includes three of the Tour’s six unclassifiable climbs, such is their difficulty.
Here are the stage results:
And here are the overall standings. It’s unchanged at the top.
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The French love a French winner. And such a young one too! His first Tour stage win, the biggest of his career – and a fine one. A brutal day’s racing produces a youthful and courageous winner. He takes the polkadot jersey for king of the mountains too. There will have been movement on the overall classification too, though nothing that at first glance will shake up the race for the yellow jersey. Froome stays safely in that.
.@L_Calmejane the 🇫🇷 climber wins at Station des Rousses / L. Calmejane vainqueur à la Station des Rousses
— Green Jersey ŠKODA (@Green__Jersey) July 8, 2017
➡️ 30 pts 👏🏆#GreenJersey 💚 pic.twitter.com/1x3zl6EANw
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Lilian Calmejane wins stage eight of the Tour de France!
The young French rider produces a massive grin and raises his arms aloft as he crosses the line 400 metres ahead of Gesink. What an effort up the Côte de la Combe de Laisia-Les Molunes. Chapeau!
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Calmejane sticks his tongue out and rolls his shoulders as he enters the final kilometre. The noise from the fans spread out on the roadside increases as he approaches the finish line.
Calmejane shows supreme courage, using a higher gear and a greater revolutions to maintain his pace and open up a 39-second lead over Gesink, who is struggling himself. He’s taken the lead over the peloton back up to 1min30sec too. What an effort from the 24-year-old.
The plucky young Frenchman has somehow spun the lactic acid out of his limbs and picked up pace again. He’s lost five seconds but still holds a 32-second lead over Gesink with 3.5km to the line.
Calmejane has got cramp with 5km to go!
What a time for this to happen to him. He stands up in his pedals as a hamstring tightens up. He has a 36-second lead but Gesink will surely eat into that now.
Chris Froome’s yellow jersey would appear to be safe. Calmejane might not be safe, mind. He’s pushing himself to the absolute limit and almost ends up in the trees as he misjudges a bend 6km from home. Careful now. He’s got a 36-second lead over Gesink and a 1min20sec lead over the peloton.
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The fans hammer the hoardings and make a fair racket as Calmejane reaches the peak and prepares for a small descent before a ride along the plateau to the finish at Station des rousses. Behind him the menacing peloton is picking up pace with Contador making a cameo appearance at the front. Gesink is 30 seconds behind Calmejane and we’ll see how his time-trialling is now. 9km to go.
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The crowds are getting thicker as Calmejane weaves his way up the track to the peak. What an effort from the youngster this is. He’s 12.4km away from the finish, which is at at the end of a 10km flat run. Will he be able to hold the peloton off for that distance on his own with a 1min30sec lead?
Calmejane rounds a tight bend and is faced with a narrow and fierce schlep up to the top of the Côte de la Combe de Laisia-Les Molunes. Gulp. If he can hold on to his lead it would be his first Tour stage win and the second for a French rider in this year’s race. Maybe that would help ease the pain if Démare doesn’t make the cut off time.
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With 4km until the summit and 15km to the finish, Robert Gesink is making a herculean effort to try to reach Calmejane. He looks like he’ll make it but – and he’ll love this – the steepest part of this climb is still to come. The kick from Calmejane has taken the gap to the peloton up too 1min34sec. So it may well be that it is between Gesink and Calmejane for the stage victory. Pauwels and Roche would appear to have fallen away.
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A remarkable burst from Calmejane takes him 30 or 40 metres away from the trio behind him. The French public roar their compatriot up the hill and he responds. His endorphines are fair racing through his veins and Roche has blown up behind him. He’ll say hello to the peloton soon.
Nicolas Roche fancies his chances and drives away from Barguill, who is completely spent and falls away rapidly. He has Pauwels for company and Lilian Calmejane sticks to him like a leech too. Back in the peloton, the Team Sky riders steadily and cooly ascend. They’re protecting Froome diligently. The gap remains at 1min20sec.
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The Belgian Serge Pauwels takes up the reins and kicks on past Barguill at a fair old pace. The peloton is 1min17sec behind them so with 20km to go – and 8km of that on this mountain – it’s still not clear whether a winner will emerge from this plucky lot or from within the pack behind them.
Warren Barguill, who has taken maximum mountain points today, is trying to shake off company in the leading group as he hears the bells ring around him and he digs in for the lengthy and exhausting climb. Simon Clarke is dropped but the group is still eight strong.
“Outrageous handling from Chris Froome!” yelps Hugh Pickering, referring to his hairy moment some kilometres ago. “A more difficult negotiation than my friend Ben’s imminent divorce.”
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The riders are heading through a picturesque walled town before the 11.7km climb up the category one climb that is Côte de la Combe de Laisia-Les Molunes. Oof! There was a lovely momenta minute ago when a French rider asked Team Sky for permission to lead the peloton so he could wave to his family as he passed through his home village. Sky obliged, because when it comes to giving a young lad the chance to make his family proud you can put marginal gains on the back-burner. There are 25km to go.
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The peloton has gained ground having descended the other side of the Côte de Viry at a rapid pace and brought the gap back down to 1min30sec. Up at the front Roche is leading the way and Michael Valgren is making a game but perhaps foolish attempt to get across to the leaders from the original breakaway group.
“Gregg, you mentioned earlier how things would be better without radios,” writes Brian LeBlanc. “The Tour tried this on one stage maybe 10 years ago to disastrous results – the teams basically raced the day under protest and it was one of the most boring stages anyone could ever remember. It totally backfired in the Tour’s face. I doubt they’ll ever try it again.” If they banned them outright and not just for a single stage I suppose they’d have to race properly, though. The problem would be that there is no doubt illegal communication would become the new PEDs.
Facts and figures! The leading group went up the Côte de Viry 6kmph faster than the stragglers and 1kph quicker than Froome.
Geraint Thomas appears to have been involved in that incident with Froome too. He’s fond of a crash and a bit of drama isn’t he? It’s not helped the peloton increase its pace in any way. Up at the front Talansky has been dropped and pursuants, including Simon Clarke and Nicolas Roche have joined them to take the group up to nine.
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Froome will be grateful he wasn’t going any faster here – and that the drop off the side wasn’t steeper.
Frayeur pour @chrisfroome qui manque un virage / That was close for Froome! #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/1j66p84LYC
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 8, 2017
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Up at the front, Andrew Talansky, who finished 11th at the 2015 Tour, has put his foot on the accelerator to take the gap back to the peloton up to three minutes. By my reckoning, that would give the Talansky the virtual race lead.
A hairy moment for Chris Froome! The race leader has run off the road into the grass having got his wheel tangled up with a Trek rider. As a result he’s had to work a lot harder then he would have liked to get back up to the front of the peloton.
Gary Naylor brings the pun.
I don't want to whine, but I think Pinot's chances in the mountains are looking a little noir @GreggBakowski
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) July 8, 2017
The leaders reach the peak of the Côte de Viry and it’s Barguil who takes the mountain points again. Down the hill, some 2min30sec behind him, Richie Porte of BMC and once of Team Sky, has joined the Sky riders to have a chat about the possible tactics for closing this gap down in the denouement to today’s manic stage. Chris Froome isn’t up for a chinwag. He’d waste energy #marginalgains
Peter Merrin writes: “Following and watching France 2 in Argeles Gazost in Pyrenees. My French is a bit rudimentary to follow the commentary so keep up the good work. Where’s Luke Rowe?” The Team Sky road captain back among the stragglers Peter, some 14 minutes behind the peloton but not as far back as Démare. He’s got the green jersey holder, Kittel, for company. I believe they will be clear of the cut-off time though as they’re not right off the back.
The leading group has been joined by some pursuants, who have put in an extraordinary shift to reach them on the lead into the Côte de Viry. I think those riders are Lilian Calmejane and Andrew Talansky. The leading group numbers seven, which means someone else was dropped with Trentin and Matthews.
@GreggBakowski I keep telling myself that Pinot's Thrilling Heroics will emerge in the mountains, but I'm losing faith
— MaliciousA (@MaliciousA) July 8, 2017
Michael Matthews, the Australian sprinter, has been dropped from the leading eight. To be honest, he probably wondered what the hell he was still doing up there. This is no country for fast men, Michael. Matteo Trentin is gassed too. He’s falling away.
We’re 139km into today’s 187km stage and the riders have been greeted with the sight of the category two climb up the Côte de Viry. The eight-strong leading group comprising of Jan Bakelants (AG2R-La Mondiale), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors), Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Warren Barguil and Michael Matthews (Sunweb) grit their teeth and dig in as they head up it.
With 56km remaining, here's what's happened so far
• It’s been a frenetic day and hard to make sense of at times with a ferocious pace and numerous attacks but a successful breakaway not taking shape until around 60km into the race.
• When that went away it contained around 5o riders. They opened up a gap of around 3min40sec by 90km and at at that point Team Sky and Chris Froome moved to the front of the peloton and attempted to take control and steadily increase the pace.
• Behind them riders were being dropped all over the place with the big news being that Arnaud Démare, the French green jersey contender, is struggling to make the cut off time and may be disqualified from the race.
• After the climb up to the Col de la Joux, at around 100km, eight riders broke free, including Serge Pauwels, who is the virtual leader by my calculations. But with Froome only 2min14sec behind him, and Pauwels’s two minutes behind Froome in the overall standings, Froome shouldn’t be troubled.
• Oh, and we stil have the category one Côte de la Combe de Laisia-Les Molunes to come 10km from the stage end
Jan Bakelants has joined Greg van Avermaet, Michael Matthews, Marcus Burghardt, Matteo Trentin and Diego Ulissi in a successful attempt to close down the gap to Warren Barguil and Serge Pauwels. They did that with a frighteningly quick descent in which they reached speeds of up to 80kph. In better news for Chris Froome and Team Sky, the main peloton has closed the gap down to the leaders to 2min40sec.
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There’s a possibility that Arnaud Démare, the French green jersey contender, could fail to meet the cut off time on today’s race and be sent home. He’s 13 minutes behind the lead group at the moment. That gap could open up to something approaching 30 minutes today and the calculations as it stands would put the cut off time at about 30 minutes. It’s a cruel game but the cut off time, calculated as a percentage of the overall race time, is designed to ensure sprinters can’t take it easy and save their energy for the stages they think they can win.
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Warren Barguil is first to the top of the Col de la Joux and gets two mountain points for his trouble. He pips Serge Pauwels, who is hot in pursuit as they begin the descent, where they will reach speeds of up to 70kph. Yikes! That pair have 47 seconds on the sub-breakaway group behind them. Yes, this is a messy but riveting day’s racing.
Première difficulté du jour, @WarrenBarguil remporte les 2 pts du Col de la Joux. 1pt pour @sergepauwels #MaillotaPoisCarrefour 🔴⚪️🔴⚪️ pic.twitter.com/bFvFLwX1xg
— Carrefour France (@CarrefourFrance) July 8, 2017
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There are 87.7km to go and there are riders all over the place as they approach the top of the Col de la Joux. The peloton is 3min 36sec behind the lead group, which numbers 16 riders now, including the virtual yellow jersey-wearer Emanuel Buchmann. Between the peloton and the leaders there are two splinter groups. In those packs are a few more Team Sky riders so if Froome feels he is in trouble he can call on those to drop back and swell his team’s number in an attempt to bridge the gap. Luke Rowe won’t be among them, though. He’s been dropped off at the back, 12 minutes and 6km behind the leading group … but he is trying to get away from the stragglers.
This is a tough old day for the riders out there. Harder for some, such as the wily old veteran Bernie Eisel, who’s taken a tumble and relieved himself of a patch of skin on his left hip. He’s receiving some magic spray on that and grimacing as he does so. It’s a deep graze that. Ouch! That will stick to the bedsheets all right.
Chris Froome has spoken about his desire to try to emulate Eddy Merckx’s Faemino-Faema team of 1970 by keeping the yellow jersey with Team Sky from the start of the Tour de France to the finish. Team Sky will need to shape up to match that feat. The gap is at 3min31sec. He’s in danger of losing his yellow jersey today. Emanuel Buchmann, the 24-year-old BORA rider, is the virtual leader. He’s 1min29sec behind Froome and if the race finished now he’d have two minutes on the triple Tour winner.
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With 96km to go, here’s the list of 13 lead riders: Jan Bakelants and Mathias Frank (AG2R-La Mondiale), Koen de Kort (Trek-Segafredo), Michael Schär and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Michael Valgren (Astana), Jens Keukeleire (Orica-Scott), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Laurens ten Dam (Sunweb), Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) and Alberto Bettiol (Cannondale-Drapac). Will today’s winner come from this group? I think the Col de la Joux, a category 3 climb which is 2km away, will have a say in that.
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Team Sky and Chris Froome are concerned enough now that they are putting the leg work in at the front of the peloton and trying to make sure the breakaway doesn’t extend their lead any further. The sub-breakaway group, which leads the race, numbers 13 riders, among them Emanuel Buchmann and Lilian Calmejane (youngsters who would very much love a first Tour stage win) and Greg van Avermaet (who has a Tour stage win). He’s the man with pedigree from what I can see. They have 40 seconds on the first breakaway and 3min41sec on Froome and co.
To give you an idea of what this challenging stage has done to the riders, the stragglers are nine minutes off the peloton, which is itself three minutes off the group at the front. That hefty lead group has now split, with a small and game bunch of cyclists having attacked and gained a lead of 30 seconds.
For the first time today, we have a proper breakaway group! If you can call a group of around 50 riders – albeit a strung out one – a breakaway group. They’ve used their huge numbers to open up a gap of three minutes to the peloton, in which Chris Froome is present near the front.
The leading group has opened up a gap of 1min14sec. Among them we have Chavanel and Gilbert. I’d back one of those for today’s stage victory. There’s a counter-attack behind them. Six riders, including Ben Swift and Christophe Laporte, are trying to come across.
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The group at the front is swelling. There are now around 50 riders in it and they have opened up a gap of around 47 seconds. Chris Froome is not in it but he has moved to the front of the peloton (if that’s still what you can call it) along with three Sky riders as he decides whether he needs to chase the leaders down or not. No doubt he’ll be getting radio advice as to whether there are any GC rivals ahead of him.
And good day to you too sir.
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The peloton has let a group of around 25 riders escape. They’re closing down the quartet at the front and it could be that this attack is the one that delivers today’s stage winner. I’ll tell you who is in it when it settles down. There are 118km to go and the Col de la Joux not far up the road.
Calmejane is reeled in and then Chavanel and Quémeneur launch attacks of their own. With the increased pace that the peloton needed to bring Calmejane back into base the leading group’s lead has been cut to 25 seconds.
Lilian Calmejane tries to bridge the gap to the quartet but the peloton is not letting him get away and this could put paid to the escapees’ breakaway attempt.
Gary Naylor puts a name – Parbold Hill – to the testing climb that could lie between Liverpool and Manchester if ever the Tour came to the North West. The race would have to go from Bootle to Worsley if that were the case Gary. Quite far north that hill. I once asked Bradley Wiggins where he trained in the North West and he said Parbold Hill was part of his usual routine. Although having been knocked off at the bottom of it once perhaps he now favours Rivington.
Parbold Hill @GreggBakowski?
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) July 8, 2017
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There’s another attack up at the front and it may have legs. Matthias Frank of La Mondiale, Marcus Burghardt of Burgha, Jasha Sutterlin of Movistar and Cyrile Lemoine of Cofidis. They’re digging in and have managed to open up a gap of 24 seconds. Among them there are no riders who have real GC hopes so perhaps the peloton will be more comfortable about letting them go.
The stragglers at the back including Démare, Renshaw and co have been left behind to the tune of 3min 20 sec already. 47km have been covered in the first hour. That’s some distance. That’s like travelling from Liverpool to Manchester with a mini-mountain to climb somewhere near Warrington.
Despite having been given a mini-leadout by his wheel-man, Sabbatini, Kittel can’t beat Greipel, who takes the intermediate sprint with his big powerful German legs outdoing his rival’s big powerful German legs. Matthews, who was taken up to that intermediate sprint by his Sunweb team-mates, finishes second. He’ll be pleased to have pipped Kittel but he probably expected Greipel and Kittel to be dropped before the end of the first climb. But nope, they’re both in fine fettle.
Kittel and Greipel have, remarkably, stayed with the peloton through the first chaotic climb and will be able to contend the only intermediate sprint of the stage shortly. Quick Step have formed a little train at the front to give Kittel the best possible chance of earning 20 points. They’re bombing along with 142km to go.
The riders are over the first climb and into the verdant tree-lined roads of the Jura mountains. Switzerland lies ahead of them, not that they’re heading there. Team Sky’s Luke Rowe has been dropped and Dimension Data’s Mark Renshaw too. He put a shift in for Edvald Boasson yesterday so that’s perhaps understandable. There is a rolling cast of riders trying and failing with attacks at the front.
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A question: how interesting would cycling be without radios? If riders had to rely on eye sight and instinct to keep tabs on escapees that would surely add to the drama woudn’t it?
The peloton is all over the pace and riders are being dropped off the back already – mostly sprinters. Up at the front Chavanel is still giving it a go despite having been reeled in earlier. Dylan Groenewegen of Lotto and Arnaud Démare of FDJ are blowing bubbles having been left behind. After a couple of dull days this is shaping up to be an interesting one. The GC riders, having had it easy, won’t be enjoying this. And there are 150km to go.
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The breakaway is dust! Sunweb brought the peloton with them and Chavanel is swallowed up along with his two companions just in time for this climb up to Belvedere du Fer a Cheval, an uncategorised climb but still a testing one.
Oh, hang on! Team Sunweb have decided they don’t like this breakaway one bit. They’ve stationed four riders at the front of the peloton and are driving down the gap. With 155km to go – and not long until the first little climb up to the first intermediate sprint – it’s down to 20 seconds. Michael Matthews is trying to join the trio – perhaps so that he can have a crack at earning some points in the sprint.
The gap extends to 40 seconds and it seems that we may finally have a settled breakaway group as the peloton has settled down behind them, no longer the strung-out mess that it was around 10 minutes ago.
The trio of (kind of) escapees are Chavanel of Direct Energie, Alexey Lutsenko of Astana and Greg van Avermaet of BMC. They have opened up a 30-second gap. Still some way to go to be out of sight, mind. So there is some pedigree there. Two experienced riders who have won Tour stages and Lutsenko, who is a young rider who would have to outdo himself to stay with this company today.
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The first 17km have flown by. The quartet has become a trio at the front, with Chavanel still in that group and there is a second bunch of around 12 riders racing out of the peloton, which is strung out. Team Sky have sent riders to the front of the peloton to keep a watchful eye. They want to keep that yellow jersey and won’t want Froome being caught out by any sudden moves.
We have a concerted attempt at a breakaway! Chavanel has been joined by Edvald Boasson Hagen – who was runner up to Kittel on yesterday’s stage by 0.0003sec 6mm, the poor sod – Gianluca Brambilla and Alberto Bettiol. They’ve managed to open up a gap of around 12 seconds with Chavanel hunching over his handlebars, gritting his teeth and pushing down on his pedals for all he’s worth.
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Sylvain Chavanel is heading a trio of riders making an attempt to get away. The experienced Direct Energie rider Chavanel won when the Tour finished at Station des rousses on stage seven in 2010. Perhaps he’s sensing another slice of glory here.
So, we’re a few kilometres into the start and the pace is phenomenal. A few riders are trying to form a breakaway but the peloton is having none of it. Teams do not want to risk letting any one get away early on because of the uncertain nature of the Jura mountains that lie in wait. And apologies for sounding like Donald Rumsfeld, but the prevailing feeling today is that there are not enough knowns and too many unknowns around stage eight to properly predict what might happen. Lots of climbing (but not as much as tomorrow) and many a twist and turn. There will be a great deal of marking going on too. Riders such as Stephen Cummings, Diego Ulissi, Tim Wellens, Dan Martin, Tiesj Benoot and Thibaut Pinot are being tipped as potential winners. Although it’s a mountain stage it doesn’t end up high so a potential breakaway group could stay clear and fast finisher could take it.
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Morning. So, after a couple of pleasurable flat stages for the GC riders in which the sprinters have come to the fore, we’re off to the Jura mountains today where pleasure-riding will be nonexistent. The Côte de la Combe de Laisia Les Molunes glowers in the distance just 11km from the finish line and will very likely sift the wheat from the chaff. Expect movement in the overall standings – and perhaps a little drama up high. Here’s how the stage looks:
And here’s what our cycling correspondent, William Fotheringham, makes of it:
A first dose of mountain work; the 12km first-category climb just before the finish is long enough to burn off any weaker elements and the 10km across a plateau gives them no chance to regain contact. The stage winner should be a climber who gets in the early break such as Cannondale’s Pierre Rolland.
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