Tour de France: Calmejane wins stage 8

Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) claimed his first Tour de France stage win in stage 8, surviving out of a large breakaway on a blazing fast mountain stage. Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) gave chase but could not manage to close the gap, and came in second place 37 seconds later. Guillaume Martin of Wanty Groupe-Gobert led the peloton across at 50 seconds.

"It's incredible. Since the start of the Tour we've been at the front, but I never thought it would lead to a success like this," Calmejane. "I'm a rider who likes to animate the race, and I said to my teammates I wanted to try something today. They did such great work today, they allowed me to realise my dream, of winning a stage at the Tour.

"I never imagined such a scenario. I thought that when we went to seven in the break we might have a chance of contesting the stage, but to win solo like that, it's incredible."

A large group of some 50 riders formed about halfway through a stage that averaged a painful 47kph over the first 90 minutes. The lead peloton splintered and reformed, going through multiple transformations until the 24-year-old Calmejane moved into a six-man splinter group near the top of the day's second climb.

That same group took on the closing climb, but fell apart. With some 18km left on the day, and the mountaintop coming in 7km, Calmejane took off on his own. Only Gesink was able to follow but was never able to get close.

It was the second Grand Tour victory for Calmejane, who won a stage at the 2016 Vuelta a Espana. This season he has won the overall titles at the Settimana International Coppi e Bartali, Etoile de Besseges, and the Circuit de la Sarthe, as well as the mountains classification at Paris-Nice.

"From kilometre-zero right until the finish it was full gas," Calmejane said. "At the end there it was a mental battle, you couldn't let your head go. More than legs, it was about the head today."

With all of the talk of Team Sky giving up the maillot jaune to a non-threatening rider, Chris Froome's teammates apparently were not satisfied with the level of threat of Dimension Data's Serge Pauwels (at 2:00), who was poised to claim the race lead had the gap grown large enough.

"I went all in to take yellow but Sky didn't want it to happen. We didn't get a big gap. It was very hard to get in the breakaway. I gave a lot but without reward," a dejected Pauwels said.

Instead, Sky kept the pace high, discouraging any rivals from attacking. There was a brief move from Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) who tried to challenge for the white jersey held by Simon Yates (Orica-Scott), and a dig from Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors), but it was a stalemate in the end.

Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas remain atop the standings, separated by 12 seconds, with Fabio Aru (Astana) in third at 14 seconds.

The win atop the final cat. 1 climb, the Cote de la Combe de Laisa – Les Mounes, was enough to give Calmejane the KOM jersey. Kittel, who finished way back in the grupetto, picked up points at the intermediate sprint to build up his green jersey lead, while Simon Yates remained best young rider.

Arnaud Demare, the other French stage winner at this year's Tour, was ill and fell back very early. Two teammates were with him to try and bring him in within the time limit. The French champion eventually finished 180th in the last grupetto.

How it unfolded

High temperatures and sunshine accompanied the peloton as it took its foray into the Jura mountains. It was to be a day for a break group, with the possibility of staying away to the end. 

The stage indeed got off to the predicted fast start but the breakaway had trouble forming. Many tried and none was successful. Everyone wanted to get away but no one wanted to let anyone else go – stalemate.

The first excitement of the day came with the intermediate sprint. With the race going up into the mountains for the weekend, this was the sprinter's sole chance, and it turned into a showdown between the top names. Quick-Step Floors set up the new green jersey, Marcel Kittel, but his German rival, Andre Greipel, from rival Belgian team Lotto Soudal, beat him to the line for once, with Michael Matthews (Sunweb) a close third.

Missing from the sprint was the Frenchman Demare, who had fallen back earlier as soon as the road started going up. His gap built up rapidly, with the possibility of missing the time limit already becoming an issue.

From there the fight to establish a break group continued, and it was finally resolved in an unexpected way. After some 70 km, there was basically a split in the field, with about 50 riders in a front group – and all the favourites and jersey wearers behind.

Every team had at least one rider in the lead group, so no one felt the need to give serious chase. Team Sky stayed at the front of the yellow jersey group, happy to set a slower pace.

Such a large group was destined not to stay together, and soon 13 riders made their own break: Greg Van Avermaet, Michael Schar (BMC), Jan Bakelants, Mathias Frank (AG2R La Mondiale), Koen De Kort (Trek-Segafredo), Michael Valgren (Astana), Jens Keukeleire (Orica-Scott), Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Laurens ten Dam (Sunweb), Calmejane (Direct Energie), and Alberto Bettiol (Cannondale-Drapac).

With 95 km to go, the first group had about a minute over their chasers, with the Froome group at 3:37, and the Demare "stragglers" group already 12 minutes down. The first ranked climb had still to make an appearance.

Burghardt, Barguil and Trentin moved up to join the lead group, and about five km before the first mountain ranking, Barguil jumped again. Pauwels joined him in the lead, and they headed to the mountaintop. The Frenchman took the two points, with Pauwels claiming the remaining one point.

Things came back together on the descent, more or less. At any rate, more riders moved up to the head group, new groups formed and dissolved and with about 51 km to go, on the way up the cat. 2 Cote de Viry, the lead groups all joined up forces again, two and a half minutes ahead of the peloton.

Only moments later four riders jumped – Van Avermaet, Pauwels, Barguil and Bakelants. Gesink, Calmejane and Talansky gave chase. Gesink caught the leaders first but it was once again Barguil who claimed the mountain points. The peloton came over at 2:20.

Team Sky had a few close calls on the descent. Froome missed a curve and went onto the verge, losing a bit of time, but catching up again. Geraint Thomas crashed but got back up too.

The new lead group consisted of Barguil, Gesink, Van Avermaet, Pauwels, Bakelants, Nicolas Roche, Calmejane, and Clarke. With 40 km, and a cat. 1 climb to come, they had 40 seconds on their nearest chasers and three minutes on the peloton.

Astana's Valgren jumped from the chasers, hoping to catch the lead group, finally making his way to them.

With 25 km to go, Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky) had managed to pull the field back up to 1:30 behind the leaders. Many of those in the break group had by then been caught.

The final climb of the day was approaching, the cat. 1 Cote de la Combe de Laisa – Les Mounes (1202 m)11.7 km, 6.4 per cent. There was no mountaintop finish, though. There was in fact even more climbing after the ranking was taken, a saw-edge 11.5km to the finish line.

Barguil led the way up the climb,1:16 ahead of the field. The weaker climbers dropped from the nine-man lead group. As the long climb went on it was soon only Roche, Pauwels, Gesink and Calmejane at the front.

With less than 18 km to go, Calmejane jumped from the group, with only Roche able to give chase, but in vain as the young Frenchman pulled away. Roche fell back and Gesink moved up in chase.

Calmejane made his way up the final kilometers of the fan-lined road to claim the points. Gesink came in some 10-15 seconds later. Valgren had by now dropped back to the peloton, which was still nearly 1:30 behind.

Calmejane flew along after winning the ranking and the KOM jersey, the stage win beckoning to him, with Gesink in pursuit. He nearly stopped with 5 km to go though, with cramps, and while he continued, it was with obvious difficulty. Soon things went well again but Gesink had gained time.

The cramps didn't reappear and Calmejane was up out of the saddle, grinning, going into the final km. He had plenty of time to celebrate his first Tour stage win, with Gesink crossing the line some 30 seconds later. And the peloton was not far behind, with Guillaume Martin of Wanty Groupe Gobert taking third.

"I wanted to win but someone was better," Gesink said. "I tried to smash through to the front, dropped Pauwels and Roche, but at 50m I blew. He cramped but my legs weren't much better."

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