The 8th stage of the Tour de France 2011 on July 9th led over 189 kilometers from Aigurande to Super Besse-Sancy . On the stage there was a sprint classification, as well as a mountain classification in the 2nd category and the 3rd category and two in the 4th category. 189 of the 198 registered drivers started.
A few kilometers after the start, Christophe Riblon pulled away, followed by eight other drivers, the racing pace being high and the BMC Racing Team taking over the chase work. Julien El-Farès won the point in the first mountain classification , while Riblon secured 20 points in the sprint classification. At this point, the outliers' lead was over six minutes and then narrowed again. Philippe Gilbert was the first of the peloton to drive over the sprint classification after Mark Cavendish abandoned the sprint. In the further course, other teams also interfered in the management work of the field. Meanwhile, Alexander Kolobnew won the second mountain classification of the day.
On the ascent to the third mountain stage reached Tejay van Garderen to, the Cyril Gautier and Rui Costa followed. There were also attacks from the main field. A group formed from Amets Txurruka , Paolo Tiralongo and Pierre Rolland , who were followed by Johnny Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha . Shortly thereafter, Alexander Vinokurow joined the group around Tiralongo, who caught Xabier Zandio from the former top group. Meanwhile, van Garderen won the mountain classification ahead of Costa. After the summit, Riblon and van Garderen attacked the leading group, which also included Gautier and Costa, but without success. Vinokurov fought his way forward, overtaking Riblon, Gautier and van Garderen. Meanwhile, Costa stayed at the top and won the stage.
Vinokurov also fell behind Costa when Alberto Contador attacked in the main group , followed by Cadel Evans . Ultimately, however, Philippe Gilbert prevailed, who took back the green jersey with second place. Thor Hushovd , who had crossed the finish line with the group, kept the yellow jersey.
^ Diary of the stage. (No longer available online.) July 9, 2011, archived from the original on July 12, 2011 ; Retrieved July 10, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.letour.fr
