Tour de France stage 8 Live – A challenge for the sprinters

There are no signs of any attacks coming out of the peloton. Could this be it already?

For now, Packer is closer to the peloton than the three riders ahead of him, who already have a lead of 30 seconds.

Quentin Pacher of Groupama-FDJ is in pursuit of the trio, having jumped out of the peloton.

Powless’ teammate Stefan Bissegger is also with them, and have formed a three-man group a few seconds ahead of the peloton.

EF Education-EasyPost kick things off immediately, with Nelson Powless attacking with Uno-X’s Jonas Abrahamsen .

183KM TO GO

And they’re off!

Just 1km until the start! This will be much more exciting than previous days, when nobody tried to get into the break – we promise.

Some riders are dropping back to remove some of the rain gear they’d had on at the start. They’re anticipating warming up very quickly once the racing gets going.

Despite the weather, Pogačar seemed in as good spirits as ever at the start. Here he is waving to the crowd while warming up.

Still 5km to go until the official. It’s a long neutralised zone today. The riders must be itching to get on with it and warm up.

They might be cold now, in the 16 degrees temperatures, but won’t be for long. With a decent chance of the breakaway succeeding today, we can expect a big fight from the flag to get in it – and so some pretty intense racing to warm up with.

They’ve set off from the start line, and await the official start.

A lot of grim faces as they wait at the neutralised start. They will not be looking forward to riding in this weather.

We’re about five minutes away from the neutralised start.

Then there’s the weather. It’s pouring at the start here in Semur-en-Auxois, which will add to the stress and complications, and make it hard to control.

As for today’s stage, it’s far from a straightforward sprinter’s day. Unlike the days that have ended in bunch sprints so far, there is much more climbing, with the road undulating throughout, amounting to over 2,000m elevation gain. And echelons are a possibility to, if the wind blows in the right direction.

One of the most heart-warming sights of the Tour so far came during the time trial yesterday when Julian Bernard stopped briefly to greet his family and friends. Exasperatingly, the jobsworths at the UCI fined him for it, but thankfully Bernard himself wasn’t too bothered, describing it as a “dream moment.”

And indeed, the Tour’s live broadcast of race sign-on paints a rainy image of the riders.

Follow the sign on video below.

We’re around one hour away from the stage start in Semur-en-Auxois, with Cyclingnews’ on-the-ground team reporting a rainy welcome to the start village.

Meanwhile, the drama surrounding Jasper Philipsen’s relegation on stage 6 continues as the Belgian rider spoke defensively about his sprint tactics in his column Het Belang van Limburg.

“After what happened on Thursday, I do feel targeted. Much worse things have happened in the past,” he said.

The team revealed that the Dane had been suffering through stage 6 and 7, but “it was in Mads’ best interest to stop racing in order to undergo more detailed examinations to assess his injuries further and give him the proper rest and recovery needed to focus on his remaining goals this summer and the final part of the season.”

Read our full story here.

It’s all drama already at the Tour, as second-place green jersey contener Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) has been forced to leave the race because of injuries sustained from his stage 5 crash.

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews live coverage of stage 8 of the 2024 Tour de France!