Warren Barguil climbed to 13th on the Mûr de Bretagne, moving up to 8th in the general classification. Alexis Vuillermoz was the strongest of the punchers today and won stage 8, as Christopher Froome remains the overall leader.

Stage 8 in the Tour de France went from Rennes to Mûr de Bretagne and covered 181.5km. With mainly flat and rolling roads the course was a good warm-up for the climbing work, which awaits the peloton in the upcoming week. The early breakaway consisted of four riders, which left directly after the flag went down.

With 65km to go, the breakaway was already caught back by a group, which escaped after the intermediate sprint. Roy Curvers, Koen de Kort and John Degenkolb were included. The cooperation was not optimal and three riders escaped from that group, which survived until the finale, at 8km from the finish.

Everything came back together as Georg Preidler and Simon Geschke brought Warren Barguil to the front of the bunch at the foot of the final climb, the Mûr de Bretagne. Simon Geschke even joined an attack there, but Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R La Mondiale) had the most explosive climbers legs and won the stage.

Warren Barguil finished in the first group of GC contenders and took a strong 13th, he moves up to 8th in the general classification and wears the white jersey at the Team Time Trial tomorrow, because the leader of the youth classification, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff – Saxo) takes the green jersey. Christopher Froome (Team Sky) remains the overall leader after finishing 8th today.

After the stage Warren Barguil said: “It was an incredible day for me, riding through my home region in my first participation in the Tour de France and a lot of people along the roads supported for me, which made me really proud.

“I am really happy about how my teammates helped me today. At the final climb I hesitated a little too long to follow Daniel Martin at the moment he attacked and I haven’t got a result.”

Simon Geschke reflected: “Upfront our goal was to go for John [Degenkolb] today but he indicated that the final climb would become too difficult for him, so we fully went for Warren [Barguil]. The plan was to take care of him and bring him into position in the front before the final climb started, which worked out pretty good.

“As Warren [Barguil] dropped slightly to the back during the climb and a split was about to happen I decided to react on the two guys that attacked. A little later the winner passed us and I could not follow, as he was too fast.

“I am satisfied and I felt strong today. It feels good to be able to do my job and contribute to the performance of Warren [Barguil].”

Coach Marc Reef added: “The stage already took a lot from John [Degenkolb] so we decided to focus on Warren [Barguil] today.

“The team worked well to put Warren [Barguil] into position in the finale. Simon [Geschke] and Georg [Preidler] did a great job at the final climb and Simon [Geschke] even felt strong enough to react on an escape. Warren [Barguil] managed to keep up with the first group and showed a strong performance.”