Tour de France 2020: stage eight updates – live!

74km to go: Having shed quite a few riders, the peloton make their way towards the summit of the Col de Mente while the breakaway group whizz down the other side. At the back of the peloton, Roman Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) has crashed, gets a new wheel and sets off in pursuit of the bunch with blood dripping from a cut on his elbow.

80km to go: Movistar rider JJ Rojas comes down in the middle of the peloton and has to wait at the side of the road for mechanical assistance. In the polka dot jersey, Benoit Cosnefroy is first over the Col de Mente to win himself another 10 King of the Mountains points. He begins a very long descent.

81km to go: It seems Giacomo Nizzolo, who has been having a good season and won the European Continental Championships one day race last month, abandoned because of a knee injury.

82km to go: The breakaway group passes the banner telling them there’s just one kilomtre between them and the summit of the Col de Mente.

82km to go: The camera cuts to NTT rider Giacomo Nizzolo, who is riding the wrong way down the course towards a parked team car. He abandons.

84km to go: The breakaway riders are four kilometres from the top of the Col de Mente, with a lead of 14 minutes over the peloton.

86km to go: At the back of the breakaway group, Michael Morkov has a long chat with Ilnur Zakarin, his former team-mate. As Zakarin pedals away, Morkov turns to the motorbike cameraman riding alongside him, smiles, waves and gives a thumbs-up.

87km to go: The 13 gentlemen in the breakaway are steadily making their way up the Col de Menthe, with the peloton 13min 44sec behind them just beginning their ascent.

88km to go: Sam Bennett and Bryan Coquard were first and second from the peloton to cross the line at the intermediate sprint, taking the only remaining points. Peter Sagan missed out.

91km to go: The riders are on their way uphill, pedalling towards the Category 1 Col de Menthe, which is 1,349m high, 6.9km in length with a gradient of 8%. The gap between the breakaway and the rest of the field is 12min 32sec.

93km to go: Mitchelton Scott continue to lead the peloton, which is now 11min 47sec behind the breakaway. This will suit Adam yates just fine, as the bonus time available on the top of the Port de Bales and Col de Peyresourde will be neutralised if those in the breakaway are first over the two climbs.

96km to go: Jerome Cousin (Total Direct Energie) is first over the line at the intermediate sprint. Michael Morkov gets out of the saddle to come from the back, where he’s been loitering, and roll over the line in second place, in a move that is likely to further antagonise his fellow cyclists in the breakaway. He slinks back to the back of the lead bunch, getting evils from his fellow riders as he does so.

103km to go: In the breakaway group, which has opened a gap of almost 10 minutes, Michael Morkov (Deceuninck-Quick Step) is sitting three or four bike-lengths off the back, refusing to take his turn at the front as pacemaker and getting grief from some of his fellow escapees.

He’s clearly following orders from his team manager and on ITV, David Millar says the rest of the riders should just ignore him and not let him get inside their heads. He is, presumably, there to help Julian Alaphilippe should the French,an try to bridge the gap between peloton and breakaway group as they hit the mountains.

110km to go: Adam Yates is ensconced in the middle of the peloton, which is being led by his team-mate Jack Bauer.

113km to go: The gap is over seven minutes now. The 13-man breakaway leads by 7min 21sec. The first summit of note today is at the 59.5km mark but they’ll have to negotiate the intermediate sprint first. Once our 13 breakaway riders have hoovered up the points they don’t particularly want or need, there’s be just two and one left for Peter Sagan and the other sprinters to fight over.

118km to go: The gap is now 6min 03sec and rising after about 26 kilometres of today’s stage. Back in the bunch, the riders of Adam Yates’s Mitchelton Scott team are making the pace at the front.

122km to go: The gap between the escape party and the peloton is 4min 38sec and rising.

124km to go: Introducing today’s breakaway: Benoît Cosnefroy and Nans Peters (AG2R-La Mondiale), Ilnur Zakarin (CCC), Kevin Reza and Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), Michael Morkov (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Neilson Powless (EF), Fabien Grellier and Jérôme Cousin (Total Direct Energie), Carlos Verona (Movistar), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segrafredo), Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) and Ben Hermans (Israel Start-Up Nation) are the 13 riders in the lead.

Stage eight is under way: We’re off and racing in stage eight, where an eight-man breakaway has opened a gap of more than two minutes on the peloton, who didn’t react. Ilnur Zakarin from Team CCC is the highest placed rider on GC in 44th and none of those in contention for the green jersey is in the group.

Mitchelton-Scott’s Stage seven diary

Race leader Adam Scott rides for Mitchelton-Scott, whose daily tour diary is invariably worth the price of admission for the soundtrack alone. Caveat: there isn’t actually a price of admission.

Race director Christian Prudhomme on today’s stage: “The first Pyrenees stage was designed on a course that will be both dynamic and demanding,” he explains. “In less than 100 kilometres, the riders will have to reach the Col de Menté followed by the Port de Balès and the Col de Peyresourde. A fine downhiller could then have the opportunity to make a difference on a descent of around ten kilometres to the finish.”

The top 10 on General Classification

British rider Adam Yates remains in the maillot jaune, but enjoys a lead of just three seconds over the Slovenian race favourite Primoz Roglic.

Stage 7 recap: Van Aert wins as Yates stays in yellow

Wout van Aert took his second stage victory in this year’s Tour as Jumbo-Visma again emphasised their collective superiority over the peloton, writes Jeremy Whittle.

From William Fotheringham’s stage-by-stage guide: A classic Pyrenean stage: two first-category mountains and the super-category Port de Balès. There should be a pattern to the racing now and a strong team such as Jumbo or Ineos should control the pace. It’s a tricky downhill to the finish so while the overall contenders test each other, the stage will suit a climber with descending skills such as the Slovenian Matej Mohoric.