Heroic Hushovd

Stage 8 saw the riders confronted with the first climbs of this years Tour. This was the stage that everybody, even Thor Hushovd expected to loose the Yellow Jersey to Cadel Evans who is la mere second behind the race leader.

There were some noticeable absentees at the start line as RadioShack's Chris Horner was advised not to continue in Le Tour after suffering severe concussion in the same crash that ended Bradley Wiggins Tour.

The stage burst into life with 25km to go when Alexandre Vinokourov decided to break away on one of the climbs, the Peloton were caught napping and with no GC contenders willing to take the risk on making a response, the Kazakh built up a healthy lead. Vino continued to storm past riders up the road, as the Peloton found that extra gear the never say die Astana rider ran out of steam.

Break away rider Rui Da Costa had led the race for 100km and deservedly crossed the line for a memorable Stage victory. Phillipe Gilbert exploded in the final 400m to come across the line at +12". Evans and the rest of the main riders came in at +15" along Vinokourov who was swallowed up, but more importantly that group included Hushovd, who'd managed to hang in there and keep the famous yellow on his back for one more day.