Loudenvielle (France) (AFP)

First day in the Pyrenees and first surprises: the Frenchman Nans Peters successfully completed a long breakaway in the 8th stage on Saturday at Loudenvielle, where the Briton Adam Yates kept the yellow jersey and Thibaut Pinot lost his chances of victory.

The trend became clearer in this first of the two Pyrenean acts.

To the advantage of the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, the most comfortable (by far!) With the Colombian Nairo Quintana, while the outgoing winner, the Colombian Egan Bernal, appeared vulnerable in Peyresourde, the last pass of the day.

Roglic, who seemed able to force the decision, did not insist.

Unlike his compatriot, the young Tadej Pogacar (21), who attacked three times and nibbled about forty seconds the day after his disappointment in the edge stage on the road to Lavaur.

For French cycling, the results are ambivalent.

He can congratulate himself on the success of Peters, who signed the second French victory after that of Julian Alaphilippe last Sunday in Nice, but deplore the heavy failure of Pinot, his best chance at the start for the final classification.

- Bardet fall -

"It's crazy!", Commented the Frenchman on arrival, under the eyes of Prime Minister Jean Castex.

A novice in the Tour, he did as well as last year at the Giro, when he again won a stage from his debut.

To win, the solid rider of the AG2R La Mondiale team, of which he is already at the age of 26 one of the pillars by his sense of the collective and his opportunism, attacked 9 kilometers from the top of the port. de Balès, the first pass classified out of category of this Tour.

The Iserois du Trièves then left behind his last companion, the Russian Ilnur Zakarin, in the descent.

"I knew he was going down like a goat", smiled the Frenchman about the Russian, also a member of the breakaway of 13 riders formed from the first kilometers.

Zakarin got closer to ten seconds in Peyresourde before lowering the flag and taking fourth place on the stage, behind Latvian Toms Skujins and Spaniard Carlos Verona.

But at a distance from Peters, symbol of a reborn AG2R La Mondiale team after his difficulties in the Dauphiné, like Romain Bardet who nibbled two seconds in the final.

"My knee is really sore," Bardet said on the finish line, visibly worried because of a fall that occurred during the stage due to a team assistant who was poorly placed on the road.

- Pinot wonders -

In the group of favorites, Roglic was content to neutralize the start of Quintana near the top of Peyresourde.

But in the Slovenian Jumbo team, easier than ever, the number one bis, the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, was involved and gave up more than two minutes.

Pinot, for its part, was left behind very early, 45 kilometers from the finish.

Suffering from his back since his fall on the first day in Nice, the Frenchman, surrounded by his teammates from Groupama-FDJ, sank to the point of tipping more than seven minutes from his rivals at the top of Balès.

The delay peaked at over 20 minutes on arrival.

"On the flat, we manage to hide the misery but in the mountains it is more difficult," sighed the boss of his team Marc Madiot.

"We understood that we were not at the same level as in Dauphiné", where the Franc-Comtois had taken second place.

"We will try to recover, added Marc Madiot, and get back to matches that may interest us, a stage, the polka-dot jersey (for the best climber) perhaps".

"I have so much back pain that I have no strength, I can not pedal," admitted the French dubiously.

"Today is perhaps a turning point in my career".

For the favorites, the second Pyrenean explanation is scheduled for Sunday, on the eve of the first day of rest, on the 9th stage between Pau and Laruns.

With mainly two first category passes, Hourcère and Marie-Blanque, over the 153 kilometers of the course.

© 2020 AFP