2015 Tour de France: Stage 8 News, Notes and Quotes

In today’s news, notes and quotes from the 2015 Tour de France, home rider takes win on Mur de Bretagne, Froome holds yellow and more….

Alexis Vuillermoz earned the French their first victory on this year’s Tour de France, his final kick proving too hot to handle for the big guns in the eighth stage on Saturday.

The AG2r-La Mondiale rider attacked twice in the final climb, a brutal two-kilometre ascent at an average gradient of 6.9 percent, and countered overall leader Chris Froome less than one-km from the line.

“I really wanted to go for the stage win today, it was all or nothing,” Vuillermoz, a former mountain biker, told reporters.

Froome Holds Lead

Team Sky’s Froome, the 2013 champion, still leads Slovakian Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) by 11 seconds and American Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) by 13 in the general classification.

After the stage Froome put the day into context, confirming: “My team-mates did such a good job of bringing me into the foot of the climb in a good position. Once I hit the front I felt I’m here, I might as well just push on a little bit and see how the legs are feeling and also the response from the group behind.

“Today wasn’t really about extending that gap, more about looking after the gap I already have. It’s 11 seconds so it’s not a big gap. But the main race is still to come. We’ve got the TTT tomorrow, then the rest day before we head into the Pyrenees and the real race for the yellow jersey starts.”

“It’s going to be tough, especially with BMC breathing right down my neck and Tejay (van Garderen) right there. But we’ve got a really strong group of guys for the team time trial and hopefully we can be up there with the best.”

Valverde gains four second bonus

Alejandro Valverde showed great form to finish after Vuillermoz and Martin and took the four-second bonus for third place.

“I had really good legs and could well have won, but when the three-man group including Vuillermoz attacked, I hesitated for a bit when I would surely have had to go after them,” said Valverde. “Into the finale, I was one of the wheels to follow, and it was impossible to try any further moves. I’m happy to feel well back again, sometimes you wind and sometimes you don’t, but this bittersweet taste is hard to bear. Still, I want to congratulate Vuillermoz; he’s spent a lot of races within the top guys lately and truly deserves this win.”

Tejay Van Garderen holds third in overall

Greg Van Avermaet finished sixth and Tejay van Garderen was 10th Saturday for the BMC Racing Team on the eve of the team time trial at the Tour de France.

Heading into Sunday’s 28-kilometer team time trial, Van Garderen is third in the general classification at 13 seconds, and Van Avermaet is fifth, 28 seconds back.

“With the team I have and what they have shown so far, I think we are pretty confident,” van Garderen said. “We are just going to go out there and ride as hard as we can. We have four world champions in that discipline on the team, so we will put out the best performance that we think we can.”

Daniel Teklehaimanot retains the Polka Dot Jersey

MTN-Qhubeka’s first objective of the day was to retain Daniel Teklehaimanot’s Polka Dot jersey. With 2 points available at the stage finish, they relying largely on Joquim Rodriguez (Katusha) not winning the stage, as he was the only real threat to the Eritrean rider’s jersey. With Vuillermoz taking the victory, he keeps the Polka Dots for another day.

“It is good to keep the jersey and to go into the team time trial with it still in our team. I can’t believe the support I am getting, it is just more and more everyday and I am very thankful. It still feels like I am in a dream.”