Tour De France 2016: Stage 8 Route, Live Stream and TV Coverage
Stage 8 of the 2016 Tour de France commences on Saturday as riders prepare for the second of three back-to-back climbs through the Pyrenees, taking them from Pau to Bagneres-de-Luchon.
Greg Van Avermaet ended Stage 7 with the yellow jersey still in his possession, but Saturday's run, which includes four categorised climbs, promises to further sort the wheat from the chaff.
Attention will be drawn to the likes of Stage 8 favourites Chris Froome and Alejandro Valverde to lay down a marker on the trip to Bagneres-de-Luchon, midway through the longest climb phase of the Tour.
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We provide all the necessary viewing information ahead of Saturday's Stage 8 duel, including analysis of some of the favourites ahead of what could come to be a critical phase of the competition.
Date: Saturday, July 9
Time: 11.20 a.m. (BST), 12:20 p.m. (Local), 6:20 a.m. (ET)
Route: Pau - Bagneres-de-Luchon
Stage Profile: High mountains
Live Stream: ITV Hub (UK), NBC Sports App (U.S.)
TV Info: ITV 4 (UK), NBC Sports Gold (U.S.)
Alejandro Valverde
Anticipation is building toward the climb up Arcalis on Sunday, meaning fans could see riders hold themselves back on Saturday, but Valverde will be one of those vying for the stage win irrespective of tactics.
A 10th-placed finished on Friday's Stage 7 was a decent enough result for the Movistar representative, who did speak ominously of the contest that may unfold in Stage 8, per Emil Axelgaard of CyclingQuotes.com:
"The arch collapsed as we headed into the final kilometer - someone might have wanted the race to end a bit earlier(laughs) Seriously, it’s all right for us. It was a slightly more calm day, but the wear and tear of the tough previous stages is starting to be felt. It was also a strange race today: no one was thinking that such a big escape would form. In the end, it stayed away. We will see what we can do tomorrow.
"
And although Arcalis lays just around the corner, riders will have to take into account the epic 2,115-kilometre climb up Col du Tourmalet into account, another opportunity to run ahead.
Valverde finished third at this year's Giro d'Italia, laying the groundwork for an assault on the Tour title that already appears to be taking shape, as was shown in Friday's outing.
One can expect to see the Spaniard in the mix, particularly if he managed to find his way among the leading crowd coming off the relatively straightforward descent from the Peyresourde near Saturday's finish.
Chris Froome
Another man worth keeping an eye on come Saturday will be front-runner Froome, who currently sits fifth in the overall classification, six minutes and 42 seconds behind leading Van Avermaet.
Depending on the strategy taken by other teams on Saturday, Team Sky's talisman can look to make this one stage where he cuts back the deficit, and Froome appeared to be fighting fit after Stage 7:
The Briton is more than aware of the time that could be made heading into Stage 8 and Stage 9, too, per Sky Sports:
"We have got a really big weekend coming up and we have got a lot of hard racing coming up, so we wanted to save a little bit for the next two days.
Tomorrow's stage is a lot harder and there are a lot of tired legs. Today wasn't an easy stage, so once we get into tomorrow's stage and Sunday's stage, we are going to see some proper big gaps.
"
Needless to say, the pre-Tour favourite won't be banking on his legs being among that number seen tiring, and after an inflatable bridge fell to cause disruption at Stage 7, the gloves will surely come off this weekend.
The climb to Col du Tourmalet is followed by three less imperious climbs, but ones that fall in quicker succession before reaching Bagneres-de-Luchon, and Froome's leading potential is sure to be tested.
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