Stage 8 - Arrivederci Armstrong

Stage 8 finally saw the 2010 Tour turned on its head. The 189km struggle from Station des Rousses to Morzine (Avoriaz) saw Andy Schleck get the win, Cadel Evans take the Yellow Jersey, and Lance Armstrong's quest for an 8th title go up in smoke as he lost almost 12 minutes on the stage.

Despite the thrilling finish the big news of the day was the complete collapse of Lance Armstrong who suffered three crashes, and a horrible day on the bike to finish 11:45 behind stage winner Andy Schleck, in 61st place. As a result of his earlier losses on the cobbles of Norther France Armstrong is over 13 minutes in arears of the new race leader Cadel Evans and has dropped to 39th in the overall classification. His shot at winning the 2010 Tour has totally dissapeared and Armstrong will now have to forefeit his team lead to fellow American Levi Leipheimer who sits in 8th position overall. Still, the Texan has vowed to finish the race to end what will surely be his last tour in Paris. Armstrong's race collapsed when he hit the deck just before the ascent of the penultimate cat-1 climb of the Col de la Ramaz. The majority of the Radioshack team dropped back to assist Armstrong back up to the peleton, and while they rejoined just before the start of the climb the effort clearly told on the 38 year old who was immediately put into difficutly by the infernal pace set by Astana. By the top of the Ramaz he was a minute behind the main group of GC contenders but after suffering a silly crash at Les Gets Armstrong totally compounded on the climb to Morzine. He could barely lift his feet on the pedals and by the summit had lost almost 12 minutes to the big men of the tour.

Just as enthralling as Armstrong's capitulation was the race for the Yellow Jersey up ahead. With Sylvain Chavanel dropped on the Ramaz (he would lose almost 12 minutes by the end) the race to be the new leader hotted up with Cadel Evans, Andy Schleck, and Alberto Contador all in with a host. Evans had the advantage with a 30 second lead over his rivals who marked each other from within an elite group of 10 or so riders that stayed together until the final two kilometres. It was then, after a flurry of attacks, that Andy Schleck jumped, leaving Evans and (very suprisingly!) Contador in his wake. The only man that could match him was the Olympic Champion Samuel Sanchez, and the two waged a man-on-man struggle for the final kilometre before Schleck finally overcame Sanchez right on the line to take the stage victory. Their gap to the Evans and Contador group was only 10 seconds in the end but for the first time in a couple of years at the tour Contador showed weakness on a mountain top finish, when he was unable to match the explosive bursts of Schleck and Sanchez. The gap was not enough for Schleck to grab the jersey off Evans who takes the race lead by 20 seconds, with Contador 1 minute back in third. The elite group now occupy the top 10 spots on the GC and looking down the list the top 20 is likely to be set pretty much in stone from here on in. Although Contador showed weakness at the finish there are still a time trial and plenty of mountains to come for him to overturn his current deficits. And at $1.70 to win the tour now I think he looks a good bet. Schleck's performance has seen him shorten to as much as $3.40 but I think he has been over bet at that price given his disgraceful performance against the clock in the prologue. Evans on the other hand will enjoy his current position with his rivals having to attack him from here on in to take the jersey off his shoulders.

Despite the apperance of the first big mountains in this years tour there was no real movement at the top of the King Of The Mountains competition with Jerome Pinault retaining the Polka Dot Jersey without adding to his overnight total. Similarly, with the sprinters well back in the Groupetto there was no change in the Points Classification with Thor Hushovd retaining his Green Jersey. Andy Schleck's win on the stage saw him increase his lead in the White Jersey competition to 1:25 over Roman Kreuizger.

Yellow Jersey - Cadel Evans
Green Jersey - Thor Hushovd
Polka Dot Jersey - Jerome Pinault
White Jersey - Andy Schleck

Tonight's Stage - Tonight marks the first rest day so plenty of time to catch some sleep for those who watched this mornings atrocious World Cup final.

Prices courtesy of Betfair.