Tour de France Stage 8 Recap; Stage 9 Preview

For American cycling fans, especially the Joe Schmoes amongst us, it was a disappointing beginning to stage 8 to Super-Besse Sancy today. Chris Horner (Radioshack) didn't start due to his injuries suffered in yesterday's stage 7. He's an everyman who used to work in a bike shop, deciding one day to become an elite bike racer. So he went out and rode 100 miles, rested, then went out for another 100 the next day, and so on. Struggling with his first European assignment with FDJ, he came back to America with various teams and formed a reputation as a stud that could race with the best of them. Tenacious, lovable, and a terrific spirit. His tell it like it is' integrity will be missed for the rest of this Tour.

Late in today's race, American Teejay Van Garderen, in his first Tour, was close to grabbing the KOM points at the top of the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert, when Astana's Alexander Vinokourov took off from the peloton with a determined move to move into the virtual Yellow jersey on the road. Always a dangerous rider, Vino,  was clearly riding for Yellow as he hooked up with the day's early breakaway to try and gain +:32 seconds ahead of the nervous peloton. Whatever you think of Vinokourov, stripped of stage wins and kicked out of the Tour for blood doping, he makes things happen. When he wants to win, he goes for it, which is not régulière in recent tours, as the big contenders are sometimes content to wait for somebody else to make an attack.

The four breakaway riders were desperate to stay :30 seconds ahead of the second group on the bumpy approach to the final climb of the day, Super-Besse. They didn't want to bring Vino with them to fight out the finish. No matter, because in the end, Rui Costa (Portugal) who was in the lead for 185km today, took the first Tour stage win for Movistar.

A late charging Phillipe Gilbert, fed up with team management, grabbed 25 more points in his mission for the green jersey to grab second place on the stage, just 12 seconds behind. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Highroad will wear the red numbers tomorrow as he rightfullly was designated the days most aggressive rider. AND the Tour's Polka Dot Jersey as leader in the King of the Mountain competition! The youngster, 22, from Montana, commenting after the stage that his first Tour has been pretty stress free. Ahh, naivete'.

No change in the overall standing and Thor Hushovd, unexpectedly gets to keep the Yellow jersey for one more day. He is certainly riding with the added strength of the maillot jaune.

Stage 9 Issoire to St. Flour (208km)
The 4km climb, Col du Perthus, lies about midway in tomorrow's stage and has two 1km stretches of 13.8% and 11.6% gradient. The second kilometer in the col is three times steeper than the average American highway overpass! This stage could be very unpredictable, due to the unrelenting up and down nature of the profile, and has the potential to shake things up a little bit.If a rider fancies a stage win on a hard day, they should do themselves a favor to get in a large breakaway early and let the big names look at each other, while you pedal for glory. Maybe Thomas Voeckler, or Jeremy Roy. Let's go French and root for Sylvain Chavenel. Adieu.

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