Andy Schleck recorded his first Tour de France stage win on the Summit of Morzine.
An elite, 13-man group had just passed under the one-kilometre-to-go kite when the Luxembourg rider made his one, decisive move. Contador, whose Astana teammate Daniel Navarro had led almost the entire way up the 13.6km mountain, reacted quickly to his rival's attack, sprinting after his rear wheel, but he couldn't close the gap. While the story of last year's Tour was of Schleck being unable to respond to Contador's repeated accelerations in the mountains, here it was the other way around.
Samuel Sanchez was the only rider to go with Schleck, Approaching the line, with the Olympic champion looked as though he had it, but Schleck came around him, glancing across at his rival as he drew level, and then inching ahead to claim his first ever stage win in his third Tour.
Contador and Evans lost 10 seconds to Schelck, with Cadel Evans into yellow as predicted and some queries on Contador. In the lead up to the race he did say that his whole focus was on the Pyrenees, but he did look as if he could not go with Schleck.
The day started with another crash, Evans and Simon Gerrans (again!) involved, later it was Lance Armstrong with the main group who clipped a curb and came down. He remounted and with help they rejoined the GC group just prior to the first Cat 1 climb. Lance was soon under pressure and Astana quickly turned the screws with Vinokourov and Navarro pushing the pace as Lance dropped of the back and eventually lost over 11 minutes. His tour is over. Brad Wiggins also cracked and lost time - almost 2 minutes.
They day belonged to Schleck and Evans though. Schleck put himself in a fantastic position and Evans has an early Malliot Jaune - it will be interesting to see how BMC plays this out.
Stage 8 Results
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank | 4:54:11 | |||
| 2 | Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi | ||||
| 3 | Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank | 0:00:10 | |||
| 4 | Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo | ||||
| 5 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana | ||||
| 6 | Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team | ||||
| 7 | Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto | ||||
| 8 | Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack | ||||
| 9 | Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo | ||||
| 10 | Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank | ||||
| 11 | Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervelo Test Team | ||||
| 12 | Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia | 0:00:20 |
General classification after stage 8
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team | 37:57:09 | |
| 2 | Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank | 0:00:20 | |
| 3 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana | 0:01:01 | |
| 4 | Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto | 0:01:03 | |
| 5 | Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank | 0:01:10 | |
| 6 | Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions | 0:01:11 | |
| 7 | Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo | 0:01:45 | |
| 8 | Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack | 0:02:14 | |
| 9 | Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi | 0:02:15 | |
| 10 | Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia | 0:02:31 |
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