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Tour de France 2017: Stage 8

Full rolling coverage of stage 8 of the 2017 Tour de France, with the finish line positioned 12km beyond the top of a first-category climb.

 

The buses are parked up, the crowds have gathered, and the riders are signing on and posing for selfies. They will roll out of Dole at 12.10 local time. 

You can read more about it in our stage 8 preview.

Pretty much everyone is predicting a big fight to get in the breakaway. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck was the sole candidate a few days ago but there will be no shortage of pretenders on a stage like this. Expect a fast and furious start to proceedings - we'll keep you up to speed with all the moves as they unfold.

It's a lengthy neutralised section today. We're still a couple of minutes away from the flag dropping.

Tiesj Benoot, Tony Gallopin, Tim Wellens, Thomas De Gendt. Lotto Soudal have no shortage of options today, and they're all up at the front of the bunch as they follow Prudhomme's car...

Tsgabu Grmay is there for Bahrain Merida, trying to drag a move clear. 

The leading quartet sits up as more attackers drag the peloton back.

Michael Matthews is in this chase group. LottoNL-Jumbo are chasing in the peloton behind, though.

The three leaders have 24 seconds over the peloton, with Sunweb pulling the peloton. 

160km remaining from 187km

Sunweb will be eyeing the intermediate sprint after 45 kilometres. That comes after the short, uncategorised climb, where Sunweb will hope to set such a tempo as to drop the likes of Marcel Kittel. 

Van Avermaet, Lutsenko, and Chavanel have no option but to press on with their effort, even if it's taking a lot out of their legs for the reward it's yielding - the gap comes under 30 seconds.

153km remaining from 187km

Arnaud Demare, Luke Rowe and Mark Renshaw are among the riders being dropped as the difficulty ramps up.

Much looking around at the front of the bunch as the riders anticipate the next attacks. The intermediate sprint is coming up in just over 5km.

147km remaining from 187km

QuickStep hit the front of the peloton, and there is the green jersey of Marcel Kittel. Sunweb failed to drop him and the German will be hungry for these points. 

138km remaining from 187km

Chavanel is going again! He's in a counter attack with Ulissi, Naesen, Stybar, Dani Navarro, Pierre Rolland, and an Astana. 

125km remaining from 187km

119km remaining from 187km

The peloton appears to be slowing up, and letting this one go.

113km remaining from 187km

Sky lead the peloton with the rest of their men, but they're setting an easy pace, and the breakaway is building up a proper advantage. Pretty much every team has at least one rider in there, meaning there's no one team chasing in the bunch. 

We'll bring you the composition of the group shortly. This huge group may break up further in the coming kilometres, potentially decisively so on the first categorised climb of the day - the cat 3 Col de la Joux, which comes after just under 100km.

This could well be a big coup for Buchmann, the talented young German. He came to this Tour to help Rafal Majka but, after finishing 7th at the Dauphine, was also expected to ride strongly on GC, with a possible view to the white jersey. He started the day 14th, at 1:29, meaning he is now the virtual leader of the Tour de France. Having Burghardt up there for support will be vital, too. 

Arnaud Demare, dropped earlier, is some nine minutes behind the peloton now...

 Warren Barguill (Sunweb) doesn't like the big group and jumps. They are starting up the first ranked climb of the day.

 That was the cat. 3 Col de la Joux.

So, Direct Energie had four men in the initial 46-rider breakaway, and none of them have managed to get up the road. They have therefore hit the front of the chase group to track down the eight-man lead group. 

56km remaining from 187km

Team Sky are maintaining a strong grip on proceedings here. They've pulled Knees back from the break and the German is currently setting a decent pace on the front of the peloton, which is just 2:25 back from the front of the race. After all this, today's winner still could come from the yellow jersey group. 

As the climb bites, Matthews and Trentin lose ground in the lead group. 

Talansky is 19th overall, 1:57 down. The American has finished top 10 at the Tour and was top-five in last year's Vuelta. 

52km remaining from 187km

50km remaining from 187km

49km remaining from 187km

2:20 is the gap to the peloton at the top of the climb.

Gesink, Calmejane, and Clarke, along with BMC's Nico Roche, are up with the lead group. 8 in there now.

Valgren has clipped off the front of the chase group in pursuit of the head of the race.

36km remaining from 187km

Sky's upping of pace means they will soon be up with the remnants of that large initial breakaway group. 

26km remaining from 187km

25km remaining from 187km

24km remaining from 187km

Thomas is back up in the Sky train as they continue their march, with Kwiatkowski pulling over. With the gap down to just 1:20, that's a job well done from the former world champion.

20km remaining from 187km

18km remaining from 187km

16km remaining from 187km

Gesink makes it over to Roche, who appears to be paying for his effort. Pauwels is still in tow.

15km remaining from 187km

14km remaining from 187km

12km remaining from 187km

7km remaining from 187km

5km remaining from 187km

And maybe there is a disaster... Calmejane is cramping up. He almost comes to a halt as he tries to loosen up his legs. Wow.

3km remaining from 187km

Attacks in the peloton now, as Pierre Latour goes on the move. Sky are alive to it.

Calmejane, hailed by some as the new Voeckler, sticks out his tongue in the manner of the iconic French veteran. With 1.2km to go, he's got this in the bag now. 

Here comes Calmejane for his victory parade, with 500 metres to go.

That's it from us today. We'll have stories from Station des Rousses on Calmejane, Froome, Quintana, Contador, and much more over the coming hours. We'll be back right here tomorrow morning for full live coverage of what is set to be one of the most spectacular stages of the 2017 Tour de France. Not to be missed! Thanks for joining us today, looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow. 

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