Stage 8

The road

At the start

The first mountain finish

Sylvain Chavanel has the yellow jersey for a second time and 1:25 on Cadel Evans, with Ryder Hesjedal third, Andy Schleck fourth at 1:55 and Alberto Contador sixth at 2:26. Today is the first day the contenders can lose this Tour: the Col de la Ramaz, the first category-one climb of the race, and then the haul up to Avoriaz. Lance Armstrong starts it already bruised from two falls in a week.

How it was won

1. 136 km to go

   Sky take the Ramaz

   Team Sky send their men to the front on the Col de la Ramaz and set a pace for Bradley Wiggins that starts emptying the peloton a long way from the finish.

2. 222 km to go

   Armstrong's third crash

   Battered from two earlier falls, Armstrong collides with Egoi Martinez going through Les Gets and goes down again. He gets up, he rides on, and his last Tour is over in everything but arithmetic.

3. 36 km to go

   The last of the break is caught

   Five and a half kilometres from Avoriaz Astana finally swallow Amaël Moinard, with Vinokourov having buried himself on the lower slopes and Navarro taking over. Two kilometres later Wiggins goes out the back.

4. 42 km to go

   Kreuziger, Van den Broeck, Gesink

   The attacks come one after another and Contador answers all of them without ever going himself. Gesink opens the biggest gap; Contador closes it with Schleck fixed to his wheel throughout.

5. 51 km to go

   Schleck plays him at his own game

   With Gesink still leading and the two of them getting their breath back, Andy Schleck simply sprints. It is Contador's own move, used against him, and for once the Spaniard cannot answer it — he chases and chases and the gap does not close.

6. 6At the line

   Advantage Schleck

   Schleck wins at Morzine-Avoriaz from Samuel Sánchez, with Gesink at ten seconds, and Cadel Evans rides into the maillot jaune. Twelve minutes later Lance Armstrong is shepherded over the line by Jani Brajkovic, bruised, ragged and finished with the yellow jersey for good.

The result