Tour de France 2017: Stage 8

Tour de France 2017: Stage 8

by Katie Haskins

Stage type: Road Race – minor mountains

Length: 187.5 km/116.5 miles

Route: Dole to Station des Rousses

Up until today, there has been a small breakaway at the very beginning of the stage that is let go and not much happens until the last 10 km or so of the race. Not today. Today started with about 50 riders breaking away from the peloton.

When the broadcast I watch started, it was 104.2 km/64.6 miles from the finish, they hadn’t reached the climbs yet, and there were three groups on the road ahead of the peloton. With a rider almost 10 minutes off the back.

At 60.2 miles, 16 riders were in the first group, 34 riders were :49 behind them, the peloton 3:33 behind, and the riders off the back of almost 12 minutes.

Two riders attacked on the Category 3 climb of 6.1 km, 728 ft high, avg. gradient of 4.7% and 9.2% maximum.

The front groups kept changing formation between 7 and 8 riders with the occasional splitting of the big 2^nd group on the road. The peloton was usually 2.5 to 3 minutes behind the leaders.

The Category 2 climb of 7.5 km, a height of 1276 ft, avg. gradient of 5.2%, and a maximum of 11.3% provided more splits in the front and the riders behind, including Arnaud Demare, the former wearer of the green jersey, losing time. There is a cutoff time to each stage. If you do not finish within a certain amount of time of the winner, you won’t be allowed to start the next day.

At 25.7 km/ 15.9 miles left, the peloton caught the large group of the breakaway near the bottom of the Category 1 and last major climb of the day. The Cat 1 was 11.7 km long, topped out at 2418 ft, avg. gradient of 6.4%, and a maximum of 15.8%. The climb split the remaining 6 riders into small groups.

With 18 km/ 11.2 miles left to go Lilian Calmejane attacked the front group he was with. He managed to get away and stay until the end to win in 4:30:29.

The top of the overall leader board did not change.