Cycling: The eighth stage of the Tour de France had cast its shadow. At the latest after Alberto Contador had pointed out the upcoming mountains after the paved stage, everyone was waiting for a first furious performance in the Vosges.
And his team, Tinkoff-Saxo, stuck to the game plan. While the men in the neon yellow jerseys controlled the pace in the field, a five-man lead group around Sylvain Chavanel (IAM) managed to build up a lead that should be enough for one of them to win the day.
The difficulties of the stage awaited at the end. Three climbs had to be mastered on the way to Gerardmer – over the last 25 kilometers.
The best was the Bel Kadri (Ag2R La Mondiale). The Frenchman used the maximum lead of more than 12 minutes and countered Sylvain Chavanel's attack on the first climb. After that he was unstoppable and drove solo towards Gerardmer. Chavanel tried in vain to keep the gap within limits and was finally caught by the favorites in the last 1000 meters. Contador was able to secure second place on the day, ahead of another strong Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), who confidently defended his leader's jersey.
Team Tinkoff-Saxo had steadily increased the pace on the last few climbs, putting other favorites under pressure, including Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp).
On the finish climb up to Gerardmer, Contador got serious. Only Nibali could follow his increased pace. All other favorites lost a few seconds to the duo. Richie Porte (Sky) was most likely to stay tuned to both. The Australian only lost a few seconds. A little further behind followed individually Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2R La Mondiale), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and Bauke Mollema (Belkin) as well as Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) .
Vincenzo Nibali continues to lead in the overall standings. His teammate Jakob Fuglsang lost 1:42 minutes today, but is still in second place. Richie Porte took third place, 1:58 minutes behind. Valverde is currently fifth overall (2:27), followed by Contador in sixth (2:34).