The 8th stage of the Tour de France 2013 took place on July 6, 2013. It led from Castres over 195 km to Ax-3 Domaines . In the course of the stage there was a mountain classification of the Hors Catégorie , as well as one of the first and one of the fourth categories as well as a sprint classification. So the eighth stage counted as a high mountain stage. 188 of the original 198 drivers started.
The first high-mountain stage of the Tour de France 2013 began at 11.47 a.m. At the beginning, Jean-Marc Marino and Johnny Hoogerland pulled away from the field, followed by Rudy Molard and Christophe Riblon . The two escape groups united and expanded their lead on the field before the first mountain classification to over seven minutes. Molard secured the mountain classification in the fourth category on the Côte de Saint-Ferreol. In the meantime, the peloton's gap to the breakaway had grown to around nine minutes, but they couldn't keep it at that level and the field was making up ground again. Nevertheless, the outliers were able to make the intermediate sprint among themselves, Hoogerland won ahead of Marino, Molard and Riblon. André Greipel was the winner of the main field sprint ahead of Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish .
Meanwhile, the lead of the top riders decreased further, about 45 kilometers from the finish the lead of the four drivers on the main field was about 1:30 min. At the beginning of the ascent to Col de Pailhères , this year's highest point of the tour, both the leading group and the peloton began to disintegrate. Riblon continued his breakaway attempt on his own, in the field the sprinters like Cavendish and Greipel fell back first, Philippe Gilbert and Tony Martin also had to let go. Robert Gesink and later Thomas Voeckler broke away from the peloton and tried to get to Riblon. He was still in the lead 45 seconds ahead of Gesink.
The Colombian Nairo Quintana attacked 37 kilometers from the finish, overtook Voeckler and Gesink and finally Riblon. The increase caused more riders to fall back from the peloton, including Daryl Impey, who wore the yellow jersey. Also Tejay van Garderen could not keep more. In the meantime, Pierre Rolland had withdrawn and followed Quintana, who was about 40 seconds ahead of him. Quintana won the mountain classification of the highest category and at the same time the souvenir Henri Desgrange . Behind came Rolland and the rest of the ranking drivers who had not yet fallen behind.
After the five had also provided Quintana, Froome attacked and was alone in the lead. Contador and his assistant Kreuziger fell behind, Porte was in second position, with the captains Valverde and Mollema in between. Chris Froome finally won the stage with a one-minute lead over Porte, followed by Valverde, Mollema and ten Dam. So Froome took over the overall and the mountain classification, in the latter he was tied with Rolland, but was ahead due to the better time. Quintana took over the jersey of the best young rider and was also named the most combative rider of the stage.
