In the pouring rain, French rider Kadri won the 8th stage of Tour de France, completing on the summit arrival of Gerardmer a long breakaway, of which he was the only survived member.
Behind the winner, the battle of the top riders was hard and it lasted on all the two climbs that preceded the final one.
Contador obtained the 2nd place at 2’17″ and Nibali at 2’20″, while Rui Costa (photo Bettini) was 12th at 3’01″ after having faced a chain problem that occurred at 1800 km to go, just at the beginning of the final climb. Because of a dip in the road, the chain that was moving from 53 to 36 had a jump, but the World Champion had to lose some seconds before starting again pedaling and beginning the chase to the other top riders.
Excepts for that problem, Rui Costa’s performance was very good: “The stage was demanding and it’s always difficult to pedal under the rain. I usually suffer the cold rain, but my legs gave me very good feedbacks. Unfortunately, I had to face this trouble that forced me to do a chase.
Thanks to my team mates, they realized a good performance and especially Durasek was great”.
Horner suffered for the cold, but he could limit the gap at 4’19″.
The world champion entered in the top 10, directly at the 8th place at 2’52″ to Nibali. Horner is 21st at 6’12″.
STAGE RESULTS
1- Kadri 3h49’28
2- Contador 2’17”
3- Nibali 2’20”
4- Porte 2’24”
5- Pinot 2’28”
12- Rui Costa 3’01”
31- Horner 4’19”
OVERALL CLASSIFICATION
1- Nibali 33h48’52″
2- Fuglsang 1’44″
3- Porte 1’58″
4- Kwiatkowski 2’26″
5- Valverde 2’27″
6- Contador 2’34″
7- Bardet 2’39″
8- Rui Costa 2’52″
21- Horner 6’12″
