One week in and the riders have ridden a time trial, flats, mountains and cobbles and we know a lot about who is in form and who is not.

Saturday and Sunday saw the peloton into the mountains for the first time and disaster for one rider in particular.  Lance Armstrong has seemed on form but suffered under lady luck. Fo the first time in his career he has been dogged by crashes with three on Sunday alone.  Tapped up already, he came out of the first crash relatively unscathed physically but had to chase hard to get back onto the peloton.  Then in a high speed corner he clipped a pedal and ended up sliding across the tarmac at 60kmph getting bad road rash in the bargain.  From their it was all downhill figuratively…  Two Eukatel riders messed up in the feed zone and Armstrong went down again.  You could see him give up, his head dropped and shoulders sagged and tellingly he ordered Chris Horner, who had been towing him with Jani Brajkovic, to go and help Leipheimer and Kloden.  Game over.  As Horner went up the road so did Armstrong’s GC hopes.

At the finish from the middle of a media scrum he acknowledged that his overall Tour was over but that he would fight on and work for the team with the possibility of a stage win somewhere along the route.  He tweeted - “When it rains it pours I guess.. Today was not my day needless to say. Quite banged but gonna hang in here and enjoy my last 2 weeks”.

Meanwhile at the head of the race Sky and then Astana set an explosive pace that shredded the peloton.  Most of the big names were at the front most notably Contador, Andy Schleck, Evans, Wiggins, Kreuziger, Basso, Menchov, Leipheimer and Sastre.  Come the finsih line though and perhaps the most telling event of the whole day was Contador’s inability to stay with Andy Schleck, the Luxembourger out-sprinting Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez to take the win.  Behind him the big winner was Evans, the World Champion pulling on the yellow jersey.  He seemed in trouble at times but was always able to pull back to the front.  Contador sat behind his lieutenants for most of the climb before reacting to other attacks, finishing ten seconds behind Schleck.

Stage 8 results

1 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 4:54:11
2 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
3 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 0:00:10
4 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana
6 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
7 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto
8 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack
9 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
10 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank
11 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervelo Test Team

With the strength of Saxo bank very much in evidence across the board things are looking good for Schleck although there were obvious ominous signs of strength in Astana and interestingly Sky, watch them in the Pyrennees!

Nicolas Roche continues to have a good Tour but has dropped back to 16th on GC which has had a big shake up after the challenge of the first mountains.

GC after stage 8

1 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 37:57:09
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:20
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:01:01
4 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:01:03
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0:01:10
6 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions 0:01:11
7 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 0:01:45
8 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack 0:02:14
9 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:02:15
10 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia 0:02:31
11 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 0:02:37
12 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 0:02:40
13 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 0:02:41
14 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:02:45
15 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 0:03:05
16 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:11
17 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:03:23
18 Thomas Löfkvist (Swe) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:03:30
19 Rafael Valls Ferri (Spa) Footon-Servetto 0:04:27
20 Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:05:03
21 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team Radioshack 0:05:39
22 Damien Monier (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 0:06:19
23 Christopher Horner (USA) Team Radioshack 0:06:33
24 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:07:12
25 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Garmin - Transitions 0:07:28
26 Ruben Plaza Molina (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:07:52
27 Kevin De Weert (Bel) Quick Step 0:07:58
28 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:08:15
29 Juan Manuel Gárate Cepa (Spa) Rabobank 0:08:39
30 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 0:08:53

In the hunt for the other jerseys, Mark Cavendish has finally found form, taking two fine stage wins.  Although quite far behind Hushovd (the current and defending Green jersey wearer), there is still plenty of time for him.  Quicksteps Pineau and Chavanel occupy 1-2 in the mountains classification after a prodigous amount of work on Saturday (which had Chavanel briefly back in yellow).

Andy Schleck leads the young rider classification from Kreuziger of Liquigas.

Overall some riders have shown their hands.  Andy Schleck has worked really hard and been seen to work hard.  Can he hold form for the full race?  He has shown he has the strength to take on Contador.  Speaking of which for the first time the Pistolero is human.  Evans is looking strong but many riders have yet to really do anything.  Sastre clung to the back of the lead group and yo-yoed on and off but will undoubtedly go all out should he still be in touch come the Pyrenees, as will Menchov.  The Liquigas boys look strong still and Wiggins has a shot if he can get his tactics right.  With the poster boy of Armstrong out of the picture Leipheimer and Kloden can count on the strength of Radioshack which could make things interesting.  Of course Armstrong now no longer has the pressure of a GC ride on his shoulders so as a free radical is free to reek havoc as none of the favourites can let him back into it.