Today the race starts for real. 144k featuring two HC climbs, a cat 2 and then the Cat 1 rated La Toussuire to finish. All the jerseys except points could potentially change hands.
Not surprisingly PHL and Kudus top the favorites.
This commentator has been somewhat critical of Kudus for passive riding, he seems to have taken it to heart -maybe too much so – 7k into the stage and he is on the attack. There are currently 11 riders ahead of him.
The sprint point comes just 13k into the race, the riders aren’t focused on that but on the attack. A 14-rider front group has come together including Kudus. They have 32 seconds over the pack, which was led by Aker, who aren’t represented in the break, but they have dropped off and now MOL is on the front. In a few K they will start the HC Col de la Madeleine (26k at 6.1%)
As soon as they reach the climb the chase relents. For now Evonik seem to be willing to gamble that Kudus’ gamble will fail. He doesn’t have any teammates up front so he will need to work with the riders in the break. The riders in the break are: Kvist Lampawog Louvel Vingegaard Rohendi Mansouri (55 KOM pts) Kudus Sergis Zambanini Rutsch (3) Tolhoek Plowright (4) Elissonde (32) De La Cruz Chapulin (6)
Kudus closest on GC at 56 seconds, Mansouri next at 4’23.
With 24k to climb and the gap just over 2 minutes, Johannessen and Burke decided they want to be up front. The former is one of the favorites for the White Jersey. Dversnes on the front of the peloton.
10k to climb, Kudus is tearing up the break. Only Elissonde, Vingegaard, Sergis and Rohendi left with him. Burke and Johannessen at 56 seconds. Pinot joined their attack for a while but couldn’t stay with them and is now further back down the mountain. Peloton at 4’42.
7k to climb and only Rohendi left with Kudus. Still 108k to go, he is going to need some companions. Peloton at 5’38. Krasts and Godon on the front. Nobody dropped so they aren’t going that hard.
With 1.8k to ride Rohendi begins to lose the wheel of the mad Eritrean. Still an impressive ride by the Jura man. Peloton at 6’25, the original break all over the road.
Kudus summits with a lead of 6’23. The next riders over are Rohendi, Burke, Johannessen, Sergis, Vingegaard, Elissonde, Pinot and Mansouri. Which means 5 points for Eilssond and 3 for Mansouri. Not a big impact on the KOM competition yet.
As the 153-rider peloton starts the descent it is Gazelle (Godon), MOL (Morales Ortega) and Oxxo-Frisby (Healy) on the front. Lecuisinier about 10 riders back and looking pretty isolated. The gap to Kudus is 6’16.
Johannessen is a great descender, he drops Burke and is able to catch Rohendi and bring him up to Kudus to create a 3-rider front group. Sergis and Burke at 35 seconds and Vingegaard at 1’15 are the next closest. Peloton at 6’12. Tinkoff also contributing. 7k to the start of the Col de La Croix de Fer (HC, 23k at 6.9%.)
15k to go on the Col de La Croix de Fer. Burke and Sergis weren’t able to get any closer to the leaders and now they have dropped back to 1’47, doesn’t look like they will make it. Kudus doing most of the work but Johannessen has taken a few turns. Peloton not committing to the chase yet and the lead has grown to 7’46.
With 10k to climb the leaders have 2’31 on Burke and Sergis and 9’14 on the peloton where Krasts is on the front but not going that hard as there are still 134 riders in the peloton.
8k to climb, Kudus accelerates and Rohendi is dropped.
Johannessen is gapped soon after.
6k to climb for the peloton. Kudus leads by 11’27, nobody willing to commit to the chase.
Kudus crests the climb having put 3’27 into Johannesen, he can just be seen in the distance. 56k to go, Kudus will be solo from here on in, the good news for him is it is all up and down hill, no long valley roads. Peloton at 12’01. Not sure what Evonik’s plan is here.
Mansouri and Elissonde both pick up a few more mountain points but Kudus, on 40, has become he biggest threat to the lead. Full Standings:
The peloton, with 83 riders, finishes the Col de La Croix de Fer 12’05 down on Kudus.
In between the peloton and Kudus are (time from Kudus):
Johannessen (3’08)
Rohendi (4’19)
Vingegaard (5’40)
Pinot, Burke, Sergis (6’20)
Elissonde (6’45)
Tolhoek (9’05)
Mansouri (10’33)
Next for Kudus is the Col du Mollard, Cat 2, 5.9k at 6.7%
Kudus still dancing on the pedals as reaches the top of the Mollard, his lead over the peloton has shrunk slightly to 11’35 but his lead to second on the road is over 5 minutes.
The peloton slows on the climb and when they reach the top of the Molard the lead is back to 14 minutes. Lecuisinier must be be feeling really good about his TT ability. Mansouri is caught, Tolhoek almost caught.
Our hero for the day starts the finishing climb with a lead of 13’48, he will have hoped his surprise attack would cause confusion in the peloton, he can’t have imagined they would let him get this far ahead. The climb is 18k at 6% so he could still lose considerable ground if his legs fail. Johannessen is 6’45 behind him, the Aker man won’t win the stage but he has got virtual white by over 2 minutes right now, although he will expect to lose ground as well.
The peloton reaches the final climb with a gap of 13’18 to Kudus. Forcing from Gregaard has caused a small split with Eenkhoorn and 7th on GC Darbellay caught behind. The gap is small so it might not matter but Eenkhoorn is Evonik’s strongest domestique, so they don’t seem prepared to put the hammer down on the final climb.
Still in between are Johannessen (+7’06), Burke and Pinot (8’19), Rohendi (8’40), Vingegaard (9’17) and Elissonde and Sergis (10’08)
10k banner for Kudus. He still looks good, he still has a lead of 12’47 over the peloton. Behind the gap in the peloton has closed and it is back to 70 riders.
Buitrago drags Pogacar clear and Lecuisinier responds. Elissonde and Sergis are almost caught.
Lecuisinier decides against pursuing and turns the chasing over to Almeida. Buitrago and Pogacar catch Rohendi and Vingegaard and have 37 seconds on the 45-rider peloton. They are still 11’44 down on Kudus who is about to reach the 5k banner.
Pogi drops all the riders with him and catches Pinot. He has 21 seconds on the Almeida led chase group which is 21 riders strong, with all the big names still present. Kudus is showing no signs of weakness; he still has an 11-minute lead with just 2.5k to go.
1k banner for Kudus. Behind Lecuisinier has brought a GC group back to Pogacar. McNulty has not made the junction and is the first big name showing weakness.
Kudus sprints out a fabulous win in Stage 8 with a 60k solo move after an audacious decision to enter the early breakaway. Perhaps he wasn’t worried about losing 24 seconds yesterday because he figured he could gain 10 minutes today – right now his time gap is 10’46. All the other breakaway riders have been caught except Johannessen who will be caught soon.
A 7-rider GC group catches the Johannessen with 4.3k to climb, the chase was well managed except that they didn’t allow for the fact that one of the best climbers in the world was in the break. The 7 left are: Lecuisinier, Haig, Pogacar, Padun, Sivakov, Aular, and Carthy.
Lecuisinier continues to drive the pace, with 1.9k he has only Haig, Pogacar and Sivakov with him.
Only Haig still with him as he launches the sprint with 800 meters to go.
Haig comes round Lecuisinier to take 2nd in the last 100 meters. That and the final gap of 9’07 to Kudus the make this a down day for Evonik.
Sivakov takes 4th from Pogacar.
The next group is Carthy, Johannessen, Aular and Padun, Johannessen takes over the White Jersey (by 4’03 over Buitrago). His breakaway companion Burke takes 10th.
Not a good day for any of the GC guys except Kudus, but particularly bad for McNulty who loses 13’52 to Kudus which is over 3 minutes behind his direct rivals like Aular and Padun.
Kudus leads the GC by 8’23 ahead of Lecuisinier, Haig 3rd another 40 seconds down. Kudus also takes climber’s jersey scoring the maximum 66 points on the day and is 6 points up on Mansouri.
MOL take over the teams lead, 1’36 ahead of Tinkoff as Moser have nobody capable of backing up Kudus’ 9-minute gain, Moser’s team will be tested in the days to come.
We started the day thinking that all the jerseys except points could change hands and that is what transpired, in a fairly unexpected fashion.
Tour de France 
