Tour de France: Nans Peters wins stage 8

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Nans Peters (AG2R La Mondiale) won stage 8 of the Tour de France, soloing to the finish in Loudenvielle after proving the strongest man of a 13-rider breakaway.

The Frenchman beat Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Carlos Verona (Movistar) by 47 seconds, having dropped eventual fourth-placed man Ilnur Zakarin (CCC Team) on the descent of the day's penultimate climb, the Port de Balès.

"This is crazy, absolutely crazy. I had a dream to win a stage in the Tour de France and I've done it," Peters said afterward. "To be honest Zakarin was better than me on the climb but I did everything I could. I kept telling myself, telling myself I'm the best, I'm the strongest. I really did everything I could."

Peters went solo on the descent of the Port de Balès and rode the Peyresourde alone to claim his second Grand Tour stage victory, but the biggest news of the day was the implosion of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) on the day's final climb.

The Frenchman was dropped 41km from the finish, possibly suffering from injuries sustained in a stage 1 crash. He finished minutes down and out of the GC picture, while the favourites group raced to a detente despite a flurry of attacks on the Peyresourde.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) did, however, regain 38 seconds after attacking 15km out, one day after losing 1:21 in the crosswinds.

"I saw that the other guys were looking at each other and everyone was on the limit, I had the chance to attack and I went full gas for the last 5 km to the top," Pogačar said.

"In the downhill I tried to go as deep as I could and at the end I had 40 seconds of advantage, so it was a good day for me. Tomorrow will be another hard day, we will see day by day how we face each stage."

Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) rolled in over a minute down, while Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) was over two minutes back.

Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) retains the race lead heading into the second day of the Pyrenean doubleheader on Sunday. He was distanced several times on the Peyresourde but came back to hold on to his three-second lead over Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma).

How it unfolded

What was arguably the fourth mountain stage of the 2020 Tour de France saw riders take on three categorised climbs on the road from Cazères. The Col de Menté (6.9km at 8.1 per cent), Port de Balès (12.2km at 7.6 per cent) and Col de Peyresourde (9.7km at 7.5 per cent) all lay on the 141km route before a downhill to the finish in Loudenvielle, three times an arrival town in the past.

It didn't take long for the break of the day to form, going away in the opening 10km of the stage. KOM leader Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) was up there, joining climbers Zakarin, Ben Hermans (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Neilson Powless (EF Pro Cycling) out front.

The 13-man group we completed by Peters, Verona, Skujinš, Kévin Reza and Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), Michael Mørkøv (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Fabien Grellier and Jérôme Cousin (Total Direct Energie), and Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb).

The break quickly built a gap of several minutes as the Mitchelton-Scott-led peloton was happy to let them get away. At the intermediate sprint 42km into the day, Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) dragged back two points in the points competition on Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), putting him within seven of the Slovak.

Not long after, the break hit the Col de Menté almost 14 minutes up on the peloton – a sign of who would claim the stage win later on. European champion Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling) left the race midway up, suffering from a leg injury, while Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) crashed near the top and cut his elbow.

To nobody's surprise, Cosnefroy extended his KOM lead with a maximum 10 points over the top, before Cousin went it along on the descent and into the valley road ahead of the Port de Balès. His adventure would end there, though, after Zakarin and Peters went on the offensive to leave the break behind with 45km to run.

But the Russian admitted his poor descending abilities cost him on the drop from the Port de Balès.  "[Peters] really was good and for me today the downhill was a very big problem. I know it's my problem. [Peters] was really strong and had good motivation for today," Zakarin said.

The first big shock of the Tour came on the climb, with Pinot dropping from the peloton with 41km to go and 60 riders left in the peloton. The Frenchman clutching his lower back at one point – suffering from his crash on stage 1, perhaps.

The Peyresourde

Up front, Peters distanced Zakarin on the descent to become the sole leader as he hit the Peyresorde while Jumbo-Visma pulled the peloton nine minutes back. Key helpers dropped away on the climb, with the 'superteam' trains evaporating, leaving Jumbo-Visma as the only team with two men remaining in the shape of Roglič and Tom Dumoulin.

Former yellow jersey Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) put in attack with 15km to go before bizarrely being dropped almost immediately afterwards, while Pogačar Quintana and Roglič made a move off the front as Dumoulin pulled off.

A chase group of Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren), Miguel Ángel López (Astana), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Rigoberto Urán (EF Pro Cycling) formed as race leader Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was dropped, but there was a quick regrouping as the likes of Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) also got back on.

“Dumoulin he set a ferocious pace [on last climb] you know, and I just couldn’t hold the wheel. I actually rode my own pace for a little bit, sort of collect myself," Yates said after the stage. 

"Over the top I stayed with the guys, so in all a good day. Tomorrow is a very similar stage. If we can hold on for another day, the day after that is a rest day, so hopefully we can hold on [yellow jersey] until then."

Pogačar went again 4km from the summit and 15km from the line, building a minute's gap by the top of the Peyresourde, while Landa and Porte enjoyed a foray off the front before being caught before the summit.

Closer to the top, attacks from Martin and Quintana looked strong and gained some traction, but neither man managed to land a killer blow, and the group descended all together.

Eight minutes up the road, Peters had passed the Peyresourde alone, a cert for the stage win barring disaster on the descent to Loudenvielle. He duly rode on alone and stayed safe, taking the stage win by some distance.

Further back, Pogačar managed to stay out front to gain back a chunk of time he had lost on stage 7, while a late attack from Bardet saw him take back two seconds on the GC group and shift him up to fourth overall. In addition to the time losses suffered by Buchmann and Dumoulin, Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) also lost some time, shedding 38 seconds at the finish.

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