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Tour de France Stage 8: Chris Froome takes stage and yellow jersey (+ videos)

Full-blooded descent sees Team Sky rider put time into his rivals

Chris Froome (Team Sky) rode his way into the yellow jersey thanks to a daredevil descent off the Col de Peyresourde. Dan Martin (Etixx–Quick Step) took second on the day, while Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) moved up to second overall.

The peloton covered 51km in the first hour of the 184km stage from Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon as a whole series of riders tried to make a break stick.

Thibaut Pinot attacked on the Tourmalet at around the point that Greg van Avermaet, in the yellow jersey, was dropped. He was joined by Rafal Majka and the pair opened up a gap before being joined by Tony Martin.

Tour tech: Chris Froome's Pinarello Dogma F8

All three were caught by the peloton on the first category Col de Val Louron-Azet and Pinot was soon dropped as well.

Riders steadily dropped off throughout the final climb of the Col de Peyresourde and a Chris Froome acceleration near the summit then thinned out the front group considerably. Alberto Contador was among those distanced and he would go on to lose 1m41s on the day.

Come the summit, Froome attacked to create a small gap ready for the descent. Down on the top tube, his chest pressed against the bars – and pedalling from that position on the flatter sections – Froome moved further and further away from his rivals.

“Old school bike racing – just fun,” was how he described his effort afterwards. By the finish, his lead was 13 seconds and he also earned a 10 second time bonus as stage winner.

After three stages for Mark Cavendish and one for Steve Cummings, this was the fifth stage victory out of eight for British riders.

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6 comments

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Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
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That pedalling tuck was mental stuff. I'm not sure which is dafter, the new style or the old hang your arse off the back version. 

 

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
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Didn't know Froome had that sort of skillset. Massively impressed. 

 

I would pay dollar bills to see that from a bike cam POV if he had one.

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barbarus | 7 years ago
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Impressive stuff from Froome. Great tactics and execution - moderately pant-browning just watching him pedal in that tuck. I don't think he'll be able to pull it off again though, his rivals know he's capable of that now...

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eddie11 | 7 years ago
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Yeah cav must've really motored up that last climb...

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LaVieEnVelo | 7 years ago
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Just an amazing day's racing in that amazing landscape.

We'd love to take groups there. Take bikes down ahead of you and meet riders at the airport for 4 days riding in that riders' paradise. Anyone fancy it? Prob about 600-700 quid inc flights.  http://www.lavieenvelo.com/cycle_france/file/pyrenees.php

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bobinski replied to LaVieEnVelo | 7 years ago
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LaVieEnVelo wrote:

Just an amazing day's racing in that amazing landscape.

We'd love to take groups there. Take bikes down ahead of you and meet riders at the airport for 4 days riding in that riders' paradise. Anyone fancy it? Prob about 600-700 quid inc flights.  http://www.lavieenvelo.com/cycle_france/file/pyrenees.php

 

Angus, having had a great weekends cycling with you in Normandy last week I would definitely be up for this  1  A little less rain would be good though!

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