Skip to content

2017 Tour de France: Stage 8 News, Notes and Quotes

  • Ron 

The day belonged to the breakaway, with Direct Energie’s Lilian Calmejane taking the stage win out of a group of 50 riders that attacked early in the stage. Calmejane barely grabbed the win, however, as his legs started to cramp up 5km from the finish.

24-year-old Calmejane also claimed the polkadot king of the mountains jersey, along with the most aggressive rider award for his efforts on the tough 187.5km hilly stage from Dole to Station des Rousses.

Calmejane just barely bested LottoNL-Jumbo’s Robert Gesink, who moved up to second in the general classification on his strong showing.

“It was a tough day,” Gesink said. “It took a while before we were able to break away. On the last climb, I tried to close the gap at once. My legs were good and I overtook Pauwels and Roche. I just could not close the gap to Calmejane. Then I exploded a bit. I tried to recover, but I came in second.”

Gesink heard from his sporting directors that Calemjane was cramping, but was not able to use that information to his advantage.

Robert GESINK (Netherlands / Team Lotto NL – Jumbo) pictured during the 104th Tour de France 2017 – stage 8 – from Dole to Station des Rousses, 187.50 km – foto NV/PN/Cor Vos © 2017

“I was not that fresh anymore myself. I had loads of energy, but by that time it was all gone,” Gesink laughed. “I rode a very good race today. The plan was to ride my own tempo, accelerate and close the gap at once. That plan unfortunately did not work today.

Gesingk is looking forward to coming chances to solidify his position.

“There are many more opportunities to come,” he added. “This was only the first. I do not like the Jura Mountains that much, because it’s hilly all the time. Tomorrow, I will try to get some rest — if that is even possible in a stage like tomorrow. After that, there are new chances and we are going to play the game again.”

Ion Izagirre Heading Home

Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) feels good and he is flying home at 17.50 from Düsseldorf Clinic to his home town in Spain.

Before his flight back home today afternoon he commented: “I feel OK as you can see on the social media where I posted my video. All was gone well. The surgery was perfect and I’m improving day by day. I have only to say thank you very much to the Hospital of Düsseldorf and all its staff and doctors because they are great professional and I’m very happy with them. I hope that I can recover step by step and we will see when I’ll come back to roads. I’m not stressed for that. We will see day by day. Thank you all the guys for their support, for all the messages. See you all soon on the roads.”

Tags:
Bike World News