Tour de France 2023 Stage 8 LIVE: Mark Cavendish crashes out, Wout van Aert versus Mathieu van der Poel in the hills

1. Mads Pedersen 4'12'26"
2. Jasper Philipsen "
3. Wout van Aert "
4. Dylan Groenewegen "
5. Nils Eekhoff "

Not a stage for the pure sprinter? Try telling Dylan Groenewegen that. Great result for him.

His team-mate Alex Kirsch was the one who lead around the final left turn as the road kicked up. Christophe Laporte (Jumbo_Visma) it was who moved moved round Kirsch into into first place with Van Aert on his wheel. As Van der Poel took it up, on the right it was Mads Pedersen who absolutely monstered it. Jasper Philipsen came up beside him and threatened to take number 4, but Pedersen just kept going and going and going and even Philipsen eventually had to admit defeat. A strong 2nd place for him, but Pedersen showed that on this sort of finish, he has no equal.

Van Aert was blocked in, and did well to finish 3rd. The Breakaway suggest that he fell victim to a mistake from Laporte, who just stopped when he ran out of gas, and didn't swing off to let Van Aert through.

Still, even as Mattias Skjelmose peels off and drops away. No attacks are getting anywhere at this speed.

It's a severely reduced peloton as they go downhill and pick up speed.

Simon Yates (Jayco Alula), Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) involved and Yates has a problem with his mike which means can't get rolling again. Blow for the rider in 4th this morning.

Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) on his wheel. Big move causing small but significant splits. Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard alive to it.

And out the back.

Is anyone going to go early, or are Van der Poel and Van Aert banking on having the most power to put down on the uphill push for the finish? Jumbo Visma look fully focussed on both their jobs - for the stage win, and making it hard for the other sprinters, and keeping the yellow jersey safe. This is how it's done.

Jumbo Visma looking to make the Côte de Condat-sur-Vienne as hard as possible, out of the saddle and bringing the hurt. Riders are getting spat out the back, including Egan Bernal, all over the place. Coquard clings to Van Aert's wheel and Mads Pedersen is right with him. The catch is imminent.

The 1.3km, Côte de Masmont. The peloton is beginning to roar, as Dylan van Baarle (Jumbo Visma) who has worked so hard on the front today, falls away.

Up the road the breakaway's alliance withers and dies, with Anthony Turgis (Total Energies) leaving the other two behind, in a determined effort to be last man standing. Declercq battles on ahead of Delaplace, but the end is nigh for them both.

As the breakaway are back within a minute for the first time since this morning. Not necessarily one for the fastest of fast men (one of whom has sadly left us) but Trek don't normally get it wrong when they set their stall out.

You miss all the shots you don't take, it's true, but the peloton has decided. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) is done for the day.

He's struggling to eke out any sort of lead over the bunch. Just twenty seconds gap after seven kilometres out on his own.

Kasper Asgreen bursts out of the peloton. Soudal-Deceuninck had a plan and it wasn't for Tim Declercq to simply show off the sponsors logos... 2021 winner of the Tour of Flanders, Asgreen is absolutely a rider for this terrain.

Ciccone and Juan Pedro Lopez, who are committed to providing Mads Pedersen with every possible chance. Lots of teams seem happy to play passenger on this stage. Will they be the ones to take advantage at the end? Still the break have two minutes in hand, but we get a long shot back down the road, and a moment, as the peloton rounds the bend, with both groups in the same shot. Well done that outrider camera operator.

So says a Bahrain-Victorious DS on the team radio. He's not wrong, and that crash was surely a product of fatigue, and a resulting failure of concentration as much as anything else.

He's in an ambulance, and the director is lingering on the look on his face. Brutal, but maybe we need to see it, because it's over. Utterly heartbreaking for him, and gutting for everyone who loves this sport. The Tour de France continues on.

He's clutching his shoulder in that familiar, ominous fashion, as the photographers swarm to capture what could be the defining moment of the day. It came about in such innocuous circumstances, as a result of a concertinaing further up the bunch that finished with him. I can't imagine anyone wants Cavendish to end his Tour de France that way, but it's not looking good.