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2015 Tour de France Stage 8: French triumph on Mur de Bretagne, Froome keeps yellow

Alexis Vuillermoz (France/Ag2r) took the biggest victory of his career Saturday, attacking from far out on the Mur de Bretagne finishing climb to take the Tour de France's eighth stage.

Alexis Vuillermoz (France/Ag2r) took the biggest victory of his career Saturday, attacking from far out on the Mur de Bretagne finishing climb to take the Tour de France’s eighth stage. It’s the first win for a French rider in this edition of the Tour. Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) retains the yellow jersey.

The disappointing news overnight was that Luca Paolini (Italy/Katusha), winner of this year’s Gent-Wevelgem, tested positive in a July 7 sample for cocaine. He has been kicked out of the race and suspended by both his team and the UCI.

Four riders from Europcar, IAM (Sylvain Chavanel!), Bora-Argon 18 and local squad Bretagne-Séché were the day’s rabbits. Europcar’s Romain Sicard (France) took the only KOM on offer until the end of the day. Lotto-Soudal did the yeoman’s work to keep the gap manageable.

Bretagne-Séché’s Pierre-Luc Périchon (France) was the first fugitive over the day’s intermediate sprint, and green-jersey wearer André Greipel (Germany/Lotto-Soudal) was the first rider from the peloton to cross the line.

Curiously, a move flared out of the peloton to join the breakaway soon after the sprint. About 17-riders were ahead of the race, but this group split into fragments. Up front only Bartosz Huzarski (Poland/Bora-Argon 18) remained from the original breakaway; Giro d’Italia stage winner Lars Bak (Denmark/Lotto-Soudal) and Michal Golas (Poland/Etixx-QuickStep) joined him. A 13-man chase were between the lead trio and the peloton but gave up.

The new Polish-Danish alliance pulled out a minute’s lead, as Cannondale-Garmin became invested in controlling the pace of the bunch. On a little hill with 10-km to go, Bak and Golas left Huzarski behind.

The Mur de Bretagne is 2-km of 6.9% average, with the steepest ramps at the beginning, including a 12% section. Cannondale meant to sling Irishman Dan Martin onto its slope with plenty of momentum. The fugitives were brought to heel with 8-km remaining, whereupon BMC drove the train. Just at the foot of the climb, all the GC men were accounted for.

Geoffrey Soupe (France/Cofidis) hit the climb first. Warren Barguil (France/Ag2r), Simon Yates (Great Britain/Orica-GreenEdge) and Simon Geschke (Germany/Giant-Alpecin) were the leading trio under the red kite. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) was dropped with 800-metres to go, just as Vuillermoz attacked.

Vuillermoz drove on, with Martin countering but unable to reach the Frenchman. Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) nipped Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Tinkoff-Saxo) for third. Sagan, however, took over the green points jersey from Andre Greipel (Germany). Froome, third place Tejay Van Garderen, Alberto Contador and Colombian Nairo Quintana all finished together, but Nibali and Andrew Talansky both lost 10-seconds.

Sunday is the decisive, 28-km rolling team time trial. There will be a major reshuffle of the GC before the first rest day. Orica-GreenEdge and Katusha, down three and two riders respectively, will suffer.


2015 Tour de France Stage 8

1) Alexis Vuillermoz (France/Ag2r) 4:20:55
2) Dan Martin (Ireland/Cannondale-Garmin) +0:05
3) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) +0:10
116) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Cannondale-Garmin) +5:42
159) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +7:58

2015 Tour de France GC
1) Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) 31:01:56
2) Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Tinkoff-Saxo) +0:11
3) Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) +0:13
124) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Cannondale-Garmin) +35:00
180) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +59:20