READY TO DEFEND
Sunday 8 July / Belfort to Porrentruy, 158km
ROUTE/ Seven hard climbs. The last three had very testing sections, including a Category-1 hill at Col de la Croix, a mere 16 km from the finish. This was billed as the stage with ‘nowhere to hide, nowhere to rest’. The flat road was at the start and finish. The riders headed out from Belfort in the north-east of France and finished up in the picturesque Swiss municipality of Porrentruy.
THE CHALLENGE/ A very fast stage. The climbers would aim to squeeze as much as possible from this stage.
HOW IT UNFOLDED/ The scene was set for a scintillating day in a frenetic opening 60km with several attacks and counter attacks failing to make an impression as Team Sky strived to set the pace of the main bunch. Veteran Jens Voigt was among those trying to form a breakaway group and the German eventually made a solitary break but he was reeled in on the fourth climb, the Côte de Saignelégier.
Intense riding claimed another casualty as Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez briefly lost consciousness after hitting his head in a crash and was pictured in tears, his 2012 Tour and Olympics over.
The attacks continued. Jeremy Roy also enjoyed the lead before Fredrik Kessiakoff picked him off and made his own bid for victory. However, with the final summit almost in sight, Pinot stole the show. In a thrilling piece of solo riding, the youngest rider in the Tour was urged on over the final 10km by his FDJ-BigMat manager Marc Madiot shouting and banging the side of the team car. ‘I lived through the longest 10km of my life,’ said Pinot. ‘When I saw the peloton had got to within 50 seconds with 10km to go, I began to panic. If I wanted a stage victory, it was now or never.’
For Team Sky, the real drama was happening behind Pinot, as Wiggins repelled late attacks from first Nibali, the expert descender, and then Evans, the defending champion, who made his move on the descent into Porrentruy. The trio finished together, in a bunch 26 seconds behind 22-year-old Pinot. Kessiakoff took the polka dot King of the Mountains jersey from Chris Froome, who came home in the same group as Wiggins to move up to sixth in the overall standings.
‘Vincenzo is a superb descender and we knew he would try and put us under pressure coming off that climb, but we responded,’ said Wiggins. ‘It’s a fantastic position to be in after the first week and two tough days down. Now we have the time trial and then a rest day so it’s certainly some of the toughest stages ticked off, that’s for sure.’
STAGE 8 RESULT:
Winner. Thibaut Pinot (Fra); FDJ-Big Mat; 03h 56’ 10”
2. Cadel Evans (Aus); BMC; @ 26”
3. Tony Gallopin (Fra); RadioShack; @ 26”
OVERALL STANDINGS:
1. Bradley Wiggins (GB); Sky; 38h 17’ 56”
2. Cadel Evans (Aus); BMC; @ 10”
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita); Liquigas; @ 16”
‘It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I was surprised at the size of the group over the last climb, but we were there and we were present so it was good day for the team. The boys were incredible, they really marshalled the race fantastically and set us up to be able to go with them on the last climb.’
Bradley Wiggins