The 8th stage is a lumpy race with a mountainous finale. The ascents are relatively easy until kilometre 100, but the last 50 kilometres are something else entirely. The riders crest the Côte de Mont-Saxonnex (5.7 kilometres at 8.3%), Col de Romme (8.8 kilometres at 8.9%) and Col de la Colombière (7.5 kilometres at 8.5%) before the route descends into Le Grand-Bornand.
The Tour de France saw the same finale three editions ago. Breakaway boy Alaphilippe soloed to triumph that day.
Since the race finishes downhill one could arue that GC riders will want to keep their powder dry. On the other hand, Primoz Roglic is among the beste descenders the peloton. The Slovene could opt to go on the attack on the Colombière and finish it off with a brilliant descent. Furthermore, the first rider over the summit of the last climb gains a time bonus of 8 seconds, while the stage winner takes 10 seconds.
Obviously, the start list is not yet confirmed and it remains to be seen who is on form this summer, so we’ll update this article later.
Favourites stage 8 Tour de France 2021
*** Primoz Roglic, Marc Hirschi, Julian Alaphilippe
** Benoît Cosnefroy, Ion Izagirre, Maximilian Schachmann
* Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel, Alexey Lutsenko, Søren Kragh Andersen
Other interesting reads:
– route stage 8
– provisional start list Tour de France 2021