It took until a climb of the epic Mur de Bretagne for France to grab their first stage victory of the 2015 Tour de France. Alexis Vuillermoz of the Ag2R-La Mondiale team emerged victorious at the top of Stage 8’s epic climb, besting Cannondale-Garmin’s Dan Martin by mere seconds.
Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde finished third.
Vuillermoz had already shown his strength earlier in the race, finishing third on Monday on the climb of the Mur de Huy. He made an early move on the Mur de Bretagne climb and was briefly bested by race leader Chris Froome, but the Frenchman persisted in his attack to ride by Froome and cross the line first.
In the competition for the general classification, most of the contenders finished with the peloton, with only Vincenzo Nibali of the Astana team popping in the last kilometer to slide back 10 seconds in the overall. Chris Froome (Team Sky) still has the yellow jersey and leads Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and American Tejay van Garderen of the BMC Racing Team.
Stage 8 Brief Results:
- Alexis Vuillermoz (France / AG2R) 4:20:55″
- Daniel Martin (Ireland / Cannondale) +5″
- Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +10″
- Peter Sagan (Slovakia / Tinkoff – Saxo)
- Tony Gallopin (France / Lotto)
- Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium / BMC Racing)
- Adam Yates (Britain / Orica)
- Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky)
- Bauke Mollema (Netherlands / Trek)
- Tejay van Garderen (U.S. / BMC Racing)
General Classification After Stage 8:
- Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 31:01:56″
- Peter Sagan (Slovakia / Tinkoff – Saxo) +11″
- Tejay van Garderen (U.S. / BMC Racing) +13″
- Tony Gallopin (France / Lotto) +26″
- Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium / BMC Racing) +28″
- Rigoberto Uran (Colombia / Etixx – Quick-Step) +34″
- Alberto Contador (Spain / Tinkoff – Saxo) +36″
- Warren Barguil (France / Giant) +1:07″
- Zdenek Stybar (Czech Republic / Etixx – Quick-Step) +1:15″
- Bauke Mollema (Netherlands / Trek) +1:32″
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