A highly motivated Julien Simon (Cofidis) finished 18th in stage 8 of the Tour de France. The stage had been a big goal for him and he had done a recon just after the Dauphiné.

Florian Senechal did a great job to keep his leader protected throughout the day. In the finale, Geoffrey Soupe and Christophe Laporte positioned Simon and the former even led the group on the finale climb after Cofidis had lost Nicolas Edet due to a crash

"We set a very fast pace in ​​the last two kilometers," Simon said. "I was on Valverde's wheel 1.5 km from the finish. There was a small gap with 800m to go. I was with Romain Bardet. I closed it and I tried to recover but it was too late. It cost me a place in the top 10. Now there are still opportunities to make beautiful things before we reach Paris."