2011 Tour de France Stage 8 Results: Rui Costa Wins While Hushovd Keeps Yellow

There’s nothing like a bit of an incline to thin out the peloton a little bit.

Stage 8 of the Tour today took the riders from Aigurande to Super-Besse Sancy. On the way, the riders took on two category four climbs and finished on the category three climb into their destination.

The climb that made all the difference today, however, was the category two climb but not in the way that everyone expected.

Like every other day of the race, an attack formed early with nine riders, but foremost amongst them was Rui Costa of the Movistar team who led the stage from start to finish and had 12 seconds on Philippe Gilbert.

Costa gives Movistar their first win and completes his personal redemption after serving a one-year suspension for consuming a banned substance.

Despite the fact that he proved the substance was in a food supplement, he took the ban with good grace and has come back to dominate this stage.

Perhaps there’s a lesson in there for Alberto Contador.

Alexandre Vinokourov surprised everyone by bolting out to an almost one minute, putting himself into a virtual yellow jersey and got to within about 15 seconds of Costa before blowing up and being swallowed by the peloton and finishing in 22nd place.

The interesting battles were in the peloton with the key contenders throwing a few feints at each other but without anyone getting a decisive break.

Most interest was Alberto Contador’s attempts to skip away to gain back some time. Each more was countered immediately by Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans.

Encouragingly (for we Aussies) Evan’s acceleration looked much sharper and more powerful than in previous years. Admittedly, the hills weren’t that steep, but we live on hope.

Astoundingly and against all predictions, Thor Hushovd managed to retain the yellow jersey for yet another day. Tomorrow’s hills might prove more of a challenge.

Unsurprisingly, nothing really changed today amongst the leaders. The Tour is never won in the first week and there really isn’t much incentive to go out hard on a stage like this.

Tomorrow’s stage has three Category two climbs and three Category three. Not enough to upset the serious climbers, but it’ll be challenging enough for the second tier riders.

		51	HUSHOVD Thor	TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO	33h 06' 28"
		32	GILBERT Philippe	OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO	187 pts
		178	VAN GARDEREN Tejay	HTC - HIGHROAD	5 pts
		41	GESINK Robert	RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM	33h 07' 56"
			TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO		98h 30' 04"

Standings after Stage 8
1. HUSHOVD Thor                TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO      33h 06' 28"  
2. EVANS Cadel                   BMC RACING TEAM                    + 00' 01"
3. SCHLECK Frank               TEAM LEOPARD-TREK                + 00' 04"
4. KLÖDEN Andréas             TEAM RADIOSHACK                    + 00' 10"
5. FUGLSANG Jakob            TEAM LEOPARD-TREK                + 00' 12"
6.  SCHLECK Andy               TEAM LEOPARD-TREK               + 00' 12"
7. MARTIN Tony                    HTC - HIGHROAD                        + 00' 13"
8. VELITS Peter                    HTC - HIGHROAD                        + 00' 13"
9. MILLAR David                   TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO          + 00' 19"
10. GILBERT Philippe           OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO           + 00' 30"