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Tour de France standings 2017: Lilian Calmejane wins a second stage for France with a dominant effort

The 24-year-old Frenchman may have signaled the start of an illustrious career with his Stage 8 win.

Jul 8, 2017, 2:59 PM UTC

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Lilian Calmejane became the second Frenchman to win a stage at the 2017 Tour de France with an attack on the final climb of Stage 8. The 24-year-old rider had been involved in breakaways throughout the Tour, and on Saturday his efforts finally bore fruit. The dominant effort — and his first Tour win — signaled what could be a long and decorated career.

The day opened with several ambitious, but insignificant, attacks until 60 kilometers into the stage. A group of 50 riders went free, gaining as many as three minutes and 40 seconds on a peloton that contained Chris Froome before Team Sky and the yellow jersey went to the front and drove to close the gap.

The 50-man group splintered into many different permutations. The head of the course was consistently comprised of Serge Pauwels, Warren Barguil, Jan Bakelants, and Greg Van Avermaet for most of the stage. Near the summit of the second significant climb of the day — a Category 2 climb up the Côte de Viry — those four put in an effort to separate themselves again from several riders who had bridged their way to the front.

Barguil took the Category 2 summit and the five polka-dot points that go with it. On the descent, the quartet was rejoined by Robert Gesink, Nicholas Roche, Simon Clarke, and Calmejane. Behind them, the peloton had been gapping the lead, but when Froome did some impromptu off-roading, Sky dialed back the pace and let the head of the course stay at about a three-minute length.

The leading group made it to the early slopes of the Category 1 climb up to La Combe de Laisia les Molunes with roughly a minute and a half on the peloton. The group then split after roughly 140 kilometers together. Nicholas Roche took Greg Van Avermaet’s place as BMC’s representative in the break, the latter having done yeoman’s work but not particularly suited for the hardest climbs.

Roche, Pauwels, Calmejane, and Gesink formed a new quartet, keeping the peloton at a one minute, 20 seconds gap. Calmejane did his best to create chaos, putting in several surges and finally breaking free with 18 kilometers to the finish — roughly six kilometers to the end of the climb. Roche chased, but crumbled after missing a soigneur with a bottle of water.

Calmejane took the last summit, and 10 polka-dot points, but more importantly he created an insurmountable gap to the finish line.

Gesink was able to stay within shouting distance as Roche and Pauwels slipped back, but he too was losing time — up to 18 seconds with 12 bumpy, but relatively flat kilometers to go to the line.

The only thing that could seemingly stop Calmejane was himself. He had worked up a 35-second lead over Gesink with five kilometers to go in the stage when his body was hit with a bad cramp. He pulled up on his bike and switched to a higher gear to work out the lactic acid. Gesink made up five seconds before Calmejane regained his legs. He was putting time into Gesink again as he crossed the line.

Calmejane has been an instigator throughout the Tour, and it’s exciting to see someone so young dominate as he did. He will surely sip champagne with his teammates tonight, but more importantly there’s yet another French hope. There still has yet to be a French Tour winner since Bernard Hinault, and there likely won’t be again this year, but there’s still a lot to be proud of for the host nation.

Arnaud Démare won a stage and spent time in the green jersey, and now Calmejane will wear polka dots as the King of the Mountains. And Romain Bardet is still a favorite to stand on the final podium, and maybe even win the yellow jersey with a lot of luck.

Back in the peloton, there was no change.

Dan Martin flashed ambitions of using his time trial skills to steal time away on the final run in to the finish line, but was ultimately dissuaded by the peloton. Ultimately it was a mass finish for the peloton. There will be no changes in the top 10 of the standings, which isn’t surprising given what’s on tap.

With three Hors Catégorie climbs, Stage 9 has the potential to be the queen stage of the Tour. And with a rest day on tap Monday, Froome and company were wise to keep their powder dry Saturday.