Rui Costa (Movistar) marked his return from what he felt was an unfair doping ban in style, taking the eighth stage of the Tour de France at Super-Besse, as it headed to the mountains for the first time. The Portuguese rider was the last remaining member of a nine-man break that escaped in the early part of the 189km stage, dropping Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) on the final climb to the finish, holding off the peloton to take a solo victory.
Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) attacked the peloton in the final kilometre, overtaking a fading Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), to take second place. Cadel Evans led the very much reduced bunch over the line to take third.
"Winning a stage of the Tour de France is a dream for me. I can’t believe it,” said Costa at the finish. “Since the start of the race I’ve felt very fit. I am confident, but you never know what can be done exactly. A stage win is amazing.
“Throughout the day the break worked well,” he continued, “and when I found myself with Van Garderen, the agreement was good too and I thought we would go together. But when the two French riders joined us, the collaboration didn’t work so well. Then it became a bit risky and, in the end, when I attacked 4.5km from the finish, I felt that was the right time, and I was the strongest.
“Then Vinokourov was right behind me,” he added, “and I thought he would catch me. But I gave everything, and I managed to keep my lead. It’s great.
Costa’s victory is a bright spot in what has been a tough time for the Spanish team, with the death of Xavier Tondo in a freak accident, and the serious crash of Mauricio Soler at the Tour de Suisse.
“We have gone through very difficult times in the team this year, so I’m happy to bring a little happiness with the win,” said Costa. “I dedicate it to everyone who supported me, but especially to Xavier Tondo who died, and Mauricio Soler, who is currently in hospital."
The Tour finally hits the mountains as the race heads south
After the relatively flat stages of the first week, in the west and north of the country, the Tour headed into the centre of the country and the Massif Central for a tough 189km between Aigurande and Super-Besse Sancy.
With the sprinters unlikely to feature, and with Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) expected to lose his yellow jersey, HTC-Highroad and Garmin-Cervélo were unlikely to continue their control of the front of the peloton.
The race started without RadioShack’s Chris Horner due to the American suffering from concussion after coming down in the big crash during stage seven. Although the American managed to finish the stage, he was withdrawn by his team after having spent the night in the local hospital.
A larger than usual break is allowed to get away as the sprinters’ teams relinquish control
After a number of unsuccessful breakaway attempts Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) managed to get away at the 6km point. The Frenchman was joined by Costa, Xabier Zandio (Team Sky), Addy Engels (Quick Step), Julien El Fares and Romain Zingle (Cofidis), Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), and Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha).
Costa was the best placed of the nine, 4’02” behind yellow jersey Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) and the American team seemed to have no interest in defending the World champion, with the stage finish not suited to his characteristics.
After 20km the group led the peloton by a minute. Vacansoleil-DCM resigned itself to having missed the move, and handed over control of the peloton to Cadel Evans’ BMC Racing Team.
The climbing begins and Gilbert takes a little victory in the points classification
El Fares led the break over the first of the day’s climbs, the 4th category Côte d'Évaux-les-Bains, after 65.5km to take the solitary point on offer; the BMC Racing led peloton rolled over 5’30” behind him. The gap continued to widen, topping out at 6’10” after 78km, before it began to close again as the race approached the intermediate sprint in Auzances.
The sprint, after 83km, went to Riblon, although the Frenchman was simply at the head of the line as the nine riders rolled over. Behind them though, there was to be a fight for the few remaining points between the contenders for the green jersey.
Gilbert’s Omega Pharma-Lotto team wound up the pace with the Belgian champion in their wake and the Belgian champion beat current green jersey José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) on the line.
BMC Racing closes the gap as the real climbing approaches
The flurry of activity lowered the break’s advantage to 5’45”; as the BMC Racing team resumed control on the front of the peloton, it continued the momentum and the gap began to steadily come down. As Kolbnev led over the 4th category Côte de Rocher des Trois Tourtes, after 119.5km, it had shrunk further to 5’30”.
Until this point all of the work had been done by Evans’ BMC Racing Team but, with 50km to go Astana sent Andriy Grivko and Tomas Vaitkus forward to work for Alexandre Vinokourov. With 42km to go Garmin-Cervélo also joined the chase and, when Omega Pharma-Lotto took over with 35km to go, the gap quickly dropped below two minutes.
As the pace was increased at the foot of the 2nd category Col de la Croix Saint-Robert, Roman Kreuziger (Astana) was dropped. The Czech rider, who won the white jersey at the recent Giro d’Italia, was a faller in the stage seven crash that put Horner and Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) out of the race, and was nursing a bandaged wrist.
Cooperation is over as the breakaway goes on the offensive
With 31km to go, as the nine-man group were on one of the steepest section of the climb, Van Garderen attacked and, as the rest tried to follow, Zingle was dropped. Engels and El Fares were also unable to hold on, and the group was reduced to six.
As the peloton hit the same point Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) attacked, and there was no reaction from the rest. Up front, Costa attacked and only Van Garderen and Gautier could go with him.
Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was the next to attack from the peloton with Pierre Rolland (Europcar) in his wheel, and gradually they made their way up to Tiralongo.
Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM) saw his polka-dot jersey threatened, and became the next rider to attack the peloton; with him went Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky). None of the favourites in the peloton reacted to any of the moves, although most were lurking close to the front.
Passing under the 30km to go banner the lead group’s advantage was down to 1’30”, but it was now beginning to open up again under the accelerations of the constant attacking. With just over 2km to climb though, the leading trio became a duo, as Gautier was dropped.
Vino attacks for the stage and the yellow jersey
As the peloton hit another steep section, Vinokourov made his move. The Kazakh jumped from the peloton with a huge acceleration, seemingly taking the rest by surprise. Saxo Bank-SunGard initially tried to chase him down, but eventually decided to let him go.
At the front of the race, Van Garderen jumped away from Costa to take the five points at the top of the climb, and an instant lead in the polka-dot jersey standings. Hoogerland needed to take third over the top, or score some points at the finish, both of which looked unlikely, and so the Dutchman could see the jersey slipping away.
Vinokourov made short work of catching the chase group, which included his teammate Tiralongo, and set about trying to both pull back the leaders, and pull away from the peloton. Leopard Trek and Omega Pharma-Lotto were now on the front, but not attempting to chase the Kazakh yet. He started the day just 32 seconds behind Hushovd, meaning that he was heading towards taking the race lead on the road.
The chasing group crossed the top of climb 1’39” behind Van Garderen, while the peloton was 2’02” back. BMC Racing resumed its place at the front as it headed into the descent, while Riblon and Gautier rejoined Van Garderen and Costa to make four up front once more.
With 20km to go, the leading four was 1’25” clear of the chasers, and 1’55” ahead of the peloton; both margins were falling rapidly.
Vino is virtual yellow but the break is holding on
With 16km to go, the group, which was now made up of two Astana riders and two Sky riders, was just 46 seconds behind the four leaders, with the BMC Racing led peloton another 46 seconds back. While Hushovd had managed to stay with the main peloton over the day’s biggest climb, the Kazakh was now the race leader on the road, and potentially heading for his first ever yellow jersey.
On the descent it began to rain, potentially making the newly laid tarmac slippery, but with 11km to go the four leaders began to attack one another. The peloton was 1’13” back as they passed under the 10km banner, but Vinokourov’s group was just 33 seconds behind; the Kazakh still held the virtual yellow jersey, but only just.
BMC Racing was still leading the peloton, with Leopard Trek just behind them, and Hushovd keeping himself close to the front. With 7.5km to go Vinokourov’s group had not made any progress on the front four, but the peloton was gradually closing.
On a climb with 6km to Gautier attacked the leaders, Van Garderen and Costa pulled him back quite easily though, but Riblon now looked finished.
Costa makes his bid for the stage
Rui Costa went straight over the top. Van Garderen followed him, dropping Gautier, and it was the same duo as before, battling on the final climb. Under the 5km to go banner the Movistar rider was still a few metres clear, while behind them Vinokourov and Flecha had dropped their teammates and were in hot pursuit.
Van Garderen looked to have almost pulled back Costa but, metre by metre, the Portuguese rider was slipping away.
“It would have been nice to get the stage win but the group just wasn’t working so well together,” Van Garderen said afterwards. “So we split it up; but then everyone saw that I was one of the stronger ones and that meant that every time there was an attack, I was the one the others were looking at to close it down.”
The ever shrinking peloton was just 1’12” behind at 5km and, although the climb was not a particularly fierce one, race contender and current white jersey Robert Gesink (Rabobank) was dropped. The Dutchman was paced by his team, but he was not able to make it back up to the front again as the pace began to rise.
Vinokourov dropped Flecha, who was all that was left of the chase group, with 4.5km to go. The Kazakh was now just 23 seconds behind Costa, and almost a minute ahead of the peloton. He passed Van Garderen, and was now just 19 seconds behind Costa, he was still almost 50 seconds clear of the yellow jersey group though, and heading for the jersey himself.
With 2km Costa still had 19 seconds, as Vinokourov appeared to be slowing. Behind him, Saxo Bank-SunGard lifted the pace of the peloton, and then Chris Anker Sørensen put in an attack.
Gilbet goes for the points but the favourites mark each other
Gilbert then made a move, which was marked by Contador with Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) and Evans right behind him. The Belgian champion was not to be denied though, and went again. The stage was out of reach but there were plenty of green jersey points available on the line for second place.
Contador tried again, but was marked once more, then Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) jumped and was allowed to go. Evans attacked again, to be marked by the others, but the favourites were now catching Vinokourov, who had slowed to a virtual standstill. As well as the race against the other favourites Evans was looking for one second on Hushovd to take the yellow jersey, but none of these attacks was enough to dislodge the Norwegian.
Costa took the victory alone, pointing to the sky as he rolled over the line, while Gilbert crossed the line in second, ahead of the race favourites all together.
Virtually all of the favourites finished together, so none was able to take time out of any of the others, but Hushovd held on to the climbers once more to keep his yellow jersey for another day.
“I really didn’t believe that I could keep this yellow jersey,” said the World champion. “I knew that the final was very hard but I’ve got incredible form right now and also the motivation to keep the lead, so I’m very happy with the result today.”
Gilbert’s second place was enough to retake the green jersey from Rojas, while Van Garderen has the consolation of the polka-dot jersey to some way make up for the lost stage victory.