Yesterday's "feel good" Sylvain Chavanel story was cool, but today was when the real action started. As expected, it was the Big Boys time to play and they certainly did not disappoint. All of the major contenders (well, except for one) stayed together while the rest of the field dropped like flies. The field stayed together for the first 130 km, but then splintered apart like shattered glass. After the "sprinters autobus" formed at the beginning of the climb, Team Sky took up the pacemaking and completely ripped the field into pieces. They did too much work, however as they all dropped off also and left Wiggins by himself. Saxo Bank took over from there, and rider after rider popped off the back. That is when the world realized that they will never see an 8 time Tour de France champion, at least not for a very long time. Lance Armstrong, already trying to recover from an early crash, got dropped and could not keep the pace with Saxo Bank and the main field.
Astana, Armstrong's biggest rivals, sensed his troubles and then immediately took up the pacemaking in the hope of burying him beyond recovery. Lance gave it his best to keep up and was actually closing for a while, but then got caught up in another crash (no fault of his own) and finally realized that it was over. Teammate Levi Leipheimer stayed with the leaders throughout, and will probably now be Radioshack's leader throughout the rest of the Tour. Astana continued to bring the pain all the way over the top of the penultimate climb and throughout the descent. One by one Contador's teammates couldn't stand the pace they were setting and dropped off, but not Daniel Navarro.
Navarro set an incredible tempo all the way up to the middle of the final climb, until he could protect Contador no longer. Navarro seemed like he would never budge as he was riding, and in my opinion had the most courageous ride of the day. After Navarro finally gave in, only an elite group of riders were left. They were Contador, Samuel Sanchez, Schleck, Leipheimer, Evans, Rogers, Wiggins, Basso, Gesink, Kreuzinger, Van Den Broeck, Menchov, and Sastre. All of these riders were pre-race top contenders and hoped to stake their claim on the race. Wiggins was the first (and only) to crack out of that bunch, as the early pace his Sky team set became too much to handle as he got deeper in the mountains. The riders stayed together, just waiting for an attack. Youngsters Kreuzinger and Gesink each tried to make moves, but both were immediately brought back. Andy Schleck would not be denied, though, as he put such a powerful attack on the field that Contador simply could not match it. Samuel Sanchez jumped the gap to Schleck, but would have nothing for him at the line and Schleck won his first ever Tour de France stage. The rest of the group stayed close behind, and only lost 10 seconds on Schleck and Sanchez. This tempo set by the "heads of state" meant doom for poor Sylvain Chavanel and his yellow jersey.
Chavanel was dropped early on the penultimate climb, and finished with Armstrong over 11 minutes back. Ryder Hesjedal was also dropped, but put a marvelous comeback together and only lost about 1:15 on the leaders. More importantly, he is still in the hunt in the overall GC. He and the rest of the field will have a new target in sight, and he will be significantly more difficult to pass than the previous 2. Cadel Evans, current world champion, will don the yellow jersey when the race picks up again on Tuesday for stage 9. Though Evans has a very long way to go, he got himself in great position during this first week of racing.
Yesterday's "feel good" Sylvain Chavanel story was cool, but today was when the real action started. As expected, it was the Big Boys time to play and they certainly did not disappoint. All of the major contenders (well, except for one) stayed together while the rest of the field dropped like flies. The field stayed together for the first 130 km, but then splintered apart like shattered glass. After the "sprinters autobus" formed at the beginning of the climb, Team Sky took up the pacemaking and completely ripped the field into pieces. They did too much work, however as they all dropped off also and left Wiggins by himself. Saxo Bank took over from there, and rider after rider popped off the back. That is when the world realized that they will never see an 8 time Tour de France champion, at least not for a very long time. Lance Armstrong, already trying to recover from an early crash, got dropped and could not keep the pace with Saxo Bank and the main field. 
Navarro set an incredible tempo all the way up to the middle of the final climb, until he could protect Contador no longer. Navarro seemed like he would never budge as he was riding, and in my opinion had the most courageous ride of the day. After Navarro finally gave in, only an elite group of riders were left. They were Contador, Samuel Sanchez, Schleck, Leipheimer, Evans, Rogers, Wiggins, Basso, Gesink, Kreuzinger, Van Den Broeck, Menchov, and Sastre. All of these riders were pre-race top contenders and hoped to stake their claim on the race. Wiggins was the first (and only) to crack out of that bunch, as the early pace his Sky team set became too much to handle as he got deeper in the mountains. The riders stayed together, just waiting for an attack. Youngsters Kreuzinger and Gesink each tried to make moves, but both were immediately brought back. Andy Schleck would not be denied, though, as he put such a powerful attack on the field that Contador simply could not match it. Samuel Sanchez jumped the gap to Schleck, but would have nothing for him at the line and Schleck won his first ever Tour de France stage. The rest of the group stayed close behind, and only lost 10 seconds on Schleck and Sanchez. This tempo set by the "heads of state" meant doom for poor Sylvain Chavanel and his yellow jersey.
Chavanel was dropped early on the penultimate climb, and finished with Armstrong over 11 minutes back. Ryder Hesjedal was also dropped, but put a marvelous comeback together and only lost about 1:15 on the leaders. More importantly, he is still in the hunt in the overall GC. He and the rest of the field will have a new target in sight, and he will be significantly more difficult to pass than the previous 2. Cadel Evans, current world champion, will don the yellow jersey when the race picks up again on Tuesday for stage 9. Though Evans has a very long way to go, he got himself in great position during this first week of racing.
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