Roche sets up Contador for late attack as Tinkoff Saxo look strongest for big mountains

 Nicolas Roche battles the climb the finish after a wet and testing stage 8 of the Tour de France nears an end (Photo: Stefano Sirotti)

Vincenzo Nibali may still be in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France after today’s lumpy stage 8 with a commanding lead of well over two minutes on main rival Alberto Contador, but it was the Spaniard’s Tinkoff-Saxo team that landed a psychological on the Italian race leader and his Astana squad.

Contador’s team mate’s, among them Ireland’s Nicolas Roche, assumed control of the peloton on the 161km road between Tomtoblaine and Gérardmer La Mauselaine as they hunted down the early breakaway.

They managed to catch all but one of the escapees – stage winner Blel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale); with some of the breakaway only being reabsorbed on the final 1.8km ramp up to the finish.

The breakaway went clear after around 35km and built a lead of over 10 minutes, but with three mountains to be crested in the final 25km, staying away was always going to be a tall order.

In that move were Niki Terpstra (OPQS), Blel Kadri (AG2R), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM), Adrien Petit (Cofidis) and Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge). Chavanel was the first to attack, making his move as the first of the three climbs began and being followed by Kadri.

Back in the peloton, which was now closing in on the escape, it was Tinkoff-Saxo who assumed control at the front, forcing a very strong pace that had everyone except for the very strongest in trouble almost immediately.

Kadri was a fantastic winner on the first summit finish of the Tour de France, and also took the climbers' jersey for his efforts today.

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Rafal Majka drove the group hard up the first climb and was still at it well into the second ascent, when he pulled over to let Michael Rogers take over. The Australian veteran then did a characteristically Trojan job.

Like Majka before him, he crested one climb at the head of the group, drove down the other side and led them into the base of the final ascent with Roche on his wheel.

The Irishman took over on that steep ramp, but almost as soon as he hit the front, the big favourites came out to play; Contador using the work of Roche and the others as a springboard to attack Nibali and try to gain some time back on him.

His initial attack dropped everyone except for the yellow jersey, who looked reasonably comfortable despite the heavy rain for the last hour of racing and the pummeling Tinkoff-Saxo were trying to impose on him.

After Contador’s initial attack, he eased back, with Team Sky’s Richie Porte gradually clawing his way back to the two big overall contenders; while at the head of the race Kadri was taking a fantastic solo win.

And just as Porte was getting back on, Contador had another dig that saw the Australian slip a little further back, but did nothing to shake off Nibali.

And that’s how it stayed until the finish, where Contador had another dig and this time managed to pull three seconds out of Nibali, crossing the line in 2nd place some 2:27 down on the delighted French winner.

Roche would eventually cross the line in 16th place 3:33 down, happy in the knowledge that his team worked as a much better unit than Nibali’s Astana and having landed a blow, however small, on the Italian with the big mountains still to come.

July 5th to 27th: Tour de France

Stage 8: Tomtoblaine to Gérardmer La Mauselaine

General Classification

•  34 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Tinkoff Saxo 0:16:49