The eighth stage of the 2004 Tour de France was 168 km from Lamballe to Quimper . The profile of this stage was relatively demanding, as three mountain classifications in the 4th category and one mountain in the 3rd category were waiting for the riders and there was always an up and down. There were also three intermediate sprints again.
A few minutes after the start there was an attack by Christophe Moreau , the captain of the French Crédit Agricole team . Moreau was able to pull out a maximum advantage of 25 seconds before he was swallowed again by the peloton. Jens Voigt broke away from the main field at kilometer 11 , but was caught again shortly before the first intermediate sprint. However, he was still able to secure third place in the sprint. After the sprint, four drivers were able to break away from the peloton: Piil, Tosatto, Kroon and Scholz, from the Gerolsteiner team . Brochard and Moreau tried to join the top group, but they should not succeed.
Brioches La Boulangère set the pace in the main draw. Since Jakob Piil from Denmark had a defect, the leading group suddenly consisted of only three drivers. Dumoulin and Auger also tried to catch up with the leading group, but it didn't work out. The leading group had a maximum advantage of 5:40 minutes, but this was reduced by the constant tracking work of the field. At 10 km the trio was finally captured and there was a mass sprint, with Thor Hushovd prevailing.
