Sánchez wins Tour's second day in Pyrenees

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In a town nestled in the foothills of the Ariège Pyrenees, Luis León Sánchez's formidable combination of strength and cunning used to win Paris-Nice earlier this year was again used to full effect in Saint-Girons. The Spaniard fulfilled the hopes of his countrymen by emerging triumphant on the eighth stage of the Tour de France.

He's also emerged as the new leader of Caisse d'Epargne after team-mate Oscar Pereiro chose to quit Saturday, a result of poor form. The 2006 Tour champion is still struggling to regain his fitness after a serious fall in last year's Tour.

Sánchez was well positioned on the overall classification at the start of the day at 4:10 down on race leader Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale), and was for a time the virtual leader on the road. After Saturday's victory, the Spaniard leapfrogged thirteen spots to find himself 11th overall on the classement general.

"It's going to be difficult to get a top five, but we will fight. With Oscar abandoning today there is one rider less, but I'm sure my team-mates will support me now," Sánchez said, now 2:16 off the maillot jaune.

Over a thrilling, aggressively-raced 176.5 kilometres that began Andorre-La-Vielle, the 25-year-old Caisse d'Epargne rider – winner of the seventh stage to Aurillac from the 2008 Tour de France – out-rode, outsmarted, then out-sprinted his breakaway companions that began in double figures and ended with just four.

Four kilometres from the line, Nocentini's team-mate Vladimir Efimkin attacked and looked as if he'd get the win, but with 500 metres remaining, the Russian – who never held more than 100 metres' advantage – was cruelly overtaken by a fast-charging Sandy Casar of Française des Jeux. Sánchez was able to slot into the Frenchman's draft and, after a brief moment's rest, sprint past him for the win.

The other escapee, Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi), did enough for third place, though some way behind.

"I knew Efimkin had no choice but to attack," said Sánchez, enjoying his best season to date since turning professional in 2003.

"I know him well because he used to be one of my teammates. He's not very fast, so I knew he was going to attack from a long way out. I told Astarloza and Casar that we had to get him back. After [we caught Efimkin] I needed a bit of luck but I know I have a good sprint, so I was able to take the win."

Casar recalled a slightly different version of events: "Sánchez didn't want to work too much [in the chase of Efimkin]," he said. "Astarloza did the most work, and I had to ride in front more often. When we caught Efimkin I had good speed; I didn't see the line, but I thought there were 200 metres to go – but in fact it was 300, so [it was] 100 metres too much."

Nocentini digs deep to maintain the lead

Dropped on the final Cat. 1 ascent of the Col d'Agnès, overnight leader Nocentini was in danger of losing his golden tunic as he neared Saint-Girons, a town that tends to attract a community of mountain dwellers. But Astana chose not to force their advantage, deciding instead to let his AG2R La Mondiale team-mates return him to the peloton, where he finished among a group of 53 riders including all the race favourites, 1:54 behind Sanchez.

"I knew [Andy] Schleck or [Cadel] Evans would eventually attack on climb; I can't follow those guys, I remained calm," said Nocentini. "Goubert was with me, helping me out, and we caught up before top of climb.

"Today was a really tough day after my breakaway yesterday, probably the toughest day to be in the yellow jersey. Tomorrow there's Tourmalet, a very difficult climb, but it's very far from the finish. I hope there will be a breakaway, and they can fight it out and I'll be able to keep yellow until the rest day and as ong as possible," he said.

Astana withstands assault of GC hopefuls

The top of the leader board may be unchanged, but it wasn't for lack of trying by those riders behind the four Astana leaders who occupy positions inside the top 10.

The stage witnessed a number of audacious moves, first by Silence-Lotto's Cadel Evans on the opening Cat. 1 ascent of the Port d'Envalira, which took some chasing by the Astana acolytes before it was brought back; and then by Andy Schleck of Saxo Bank, who attacked on the lower slopes of the 12.4-km Col d'Agnès but was quickly shut down, again by Astana.

"It was a long way to go," admitted the younger of the Schleck brothers, "but if you don't try, you don't win. So sometimes you need to risk a little bit."

Explained Schleck of the tactics: "We had Fabian [Cancellara] in the [escape] group but he's had a stressful week behind him, so he didn't make it according to the plan, which was that we attack behind him and then he helps us from the top of the [Col d'Agnès] climb until the end. Maybe we have to use our head a little bit more in the future and not spend energy uselessly."

A start in the clouds

The second consecutive Pyrenean stage began at Andorra-La-Vielle, at 1,400 metres above sea level Europe's highest capital city, where a peloton of 176 began climbing right from the get-go, the stage beginning from the base of the Port d'Envalira, a 23.2km climb averaging 5.1 percent.

It proved an ideal platform for Française des Jeux's Sandy Casar, who bridged to an earlier group of escapees then forged ahead solo to cross its crest first.

53 seconds behind him, an interesting sequence of events had taken place with Silence-Lotto leader Cadel Evans leading a chase group that included David Zabriskie (Garmin-Slipstream), Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank), Egoi Martínez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Vladimir Efimkin (Ag2r La Mondiale), Christophe Kern (Cofidis), Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam), Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) and George Hincapie (Columbia-HTC).

Noticeable by his absence was the maillot jaune of AG2R La Mondiale's Rinaldo Nocentini, as well as any member of Astana, the groupe maillot jaune was 2:07 behind over the top of the Envalira. With Astana doing the lion's share of the chasing, the Evans group never really got too far ahead. 60-km into the stage, they had just 20 seconds' lead passing through Ax-les-Thermes, provoking a counter from Flecha and seven others, and the peloton's recapture of Evans, Zabriskie, Kern and Martinez.

100-km out from the finish, Luis León Sánchez (Caisse d'Epargne), Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha), Hushovd, Hincapie, Efimkin, Casar, Cancellara and Flecha were the new leaders on the road – Sébastien Rosseler (Quick Step) and Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) were closing in fast – while the yellow jersey group was a half-minute down.

Eight-km later, Hushovd took the sprint in Tarascon-sur-Ariege ahead of Hincapie and Cancellara, consolidating his lead in the points competition and certain to don the maillot vert by the day's end.

With 74.5-km remaining, Casar led a group of eight over the penultimate climb of the Col de Port, 3:20 ahead of the groupe maillot jaune. However, the final ascent of the Col d'Agnès reduced the lead group to three by its summit – Sánchez (Caisse d'Epargne), Efimkin (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) all that remained, though Casar of Française des Jeux wasn't far behind and would eventually get back on.

Back in the peloton, Saxo Bank's main man Andy Schleck attacked on the Agnès' lower slopes but it had little effect, a sizeable group of favourites was just 2:40 down on the front trio, 44km from Saint-Girons.

10km out, a touch over two minutes' lead all but guaranteed a one-in-four chance of victory for the lead quartet. Astarloza was first to attack his breakaway companions 4.6km from the line, but it was Efimkin's counter that stuck. However, a furious chase behind saw the Russian caught with just 500 metres left, Sánchez timing his final effort to perfection.

For images of stage eight click here

Hushovd out-climbs Cavendish to take green

Norwegian Thor Hushovd was a surprise face in the day's breakaway, entering the move only to grab a few precious points toward the green jersey before sitting up and taking his rightful place in the autobus.

The big man hauled himself up the category one climb which began nearly from the start of the stage, then attacked the descent in order to go for the points to move ahead of Columbia-HTC's Mark Cavendish in that competition.

After taking the sprint in Luzenac at km. 67 and then in Tarascon-Sur-Ariege at km. 84.5, his work for the day was done, and he donned the sprinter's jersey at the day's end, 14'14 behind the stage winner. Cavendish finished in the next group on the road.

“I knew the climb was really hard but I felt strong yesterday so I just hung on as long as I could with the main group. I got to the top [of the Port d’Envalira] and attacked straight away on the descent and I could get these important points," said Hushovd.

He was happy to take the green jersey, but admits his work is far from over. "It’s possible to win the green jersey by chasing points at intermediate sprints but Cavendish is fast and now, between the Pyrenees and the Alps, there are probably three stages suited to bunch finishes. So although anything is possible, 11 points is nothing. So I’ll take it day by day. Tomorrow I think I’ll have to save some of my energy because I went really deep today.

“It was hard to get over that first climb. I was on the tip of my saddle for a few kilometers but I knew I had to fight through it and then do a good descent and that allowed me to get the six points at the intermediate sprints. It was important for me.

“Of course the plan is to keep the green jersey as long as possible. I’m happy to have it for now and I’m going to try as hard as I can to keep it for as long as possible… maybe even all the way to Paris.”