Breakaway Wins 8th Stage Of Tour

The Peloton never seemed to be able to organize itself to chase down the last three breakaway riders today, making stage 8 a disappointing one for the sprinters. Sylvain Calzati [France] used the breakaway to get his first-ever Tour de France stage win. Kjell Carlstrom [Finland] finished second and Patrice Halgand [France] finished third. These three riders were pretty far down in the standings, so the overall standings don't change much:

1. Honchar [Ukraine-Tmobile]
2. Landis [USA-Phonak]..........1:00
3. Rogers [Australia-Tmobile]..........1:08
4. Sinkewitz [Germany-Tmobile]..........1:45
5. Fothen [Germany-Gerolsteiner]..........1:50
6. Kloden [Germany-Tmobile]..........1:50
7. Karpets [Russia-Balears]..........1:52
8. Evans [Australia-Lotto]..........1:52
9. Zabriskie [USA-CSC]..........1:53
10. Menchov [Russia-Rabobank]..........2:00
11. Kessler [Germany-Tmobile]..........2:03
12. Moreau [France-AG2R]..........2:07
13. Savoldelli [Italy-Discovery]..........2:10

17. Hincapie [USA-Discovery]..........2:30
22. Vandevelde [USA-CSC]..........3:25
23. Popovych [Ukraine-Discovery]..........3:27
24. Rubiera [Spain-Discovery]..........3:34
33. Azevedo [Portugal-Discovery]..........4:09
36. Martinez [Spain-Discovery]..........4:33
37. Calzati [France-AG2R]..........4:33
39. Padrnos [Czech-Discovery]..........4:42
81. Ekimov [Russia-Discovery]..........7:18
85. Gonzalez [Spain-Discovery]..........7:24
126. Horner [USA-Lotto]..........12:19

In the team standings, Discovery has dropped to 6th place. It's easy to see why T-mobile is winning the team race. Their riders hold four of the top six places in the overall standings. Here are current team standings:

1. T-mobile
2. Phonak..........3:09
3. Gerolsteiner..........3:56
4. CSC..........4:18
5. AG2R..........4:28
6. Discovery..........4:29
7. Francaise des Jeux..........5:36
8. Balears..........6:00
9. Rabobank..........6:01
10. Telecom..........9:19

Tuesday is a 169.5 kilometer [106 mile] ride from Bordeaux to Dax. The Tour will be taking a day off tomorrow. Tuesday's ride is very flat and I doubt the Peloton will allow another breakaway to succeed, so it probably shapes up to be another day for the sprinters. But Wednesday, the fun begins as the Tour reaches its first mountain stage. Yesterday's time trial started to show who the strongest riders are, but the mountain stages are where only the strong survive. The overall standings should change quite a bit on Wednesday.