The world's best cyclists completed Stage 8 of this year's Tour de France on Sunday afternoon, with French-born rider Thibaut Pinot taking the victory in the 157.5 kilometer trek by roughly 26 seconds. The youngest rider in the entire race, he managed to pick up his first stage victory with a time of 3 hours, 26 minutes and 10 seconds.
Pinot had to battle for the victory, as SB Nation's cycling blog Podium Cafe writes:
The 22-year-old climber from the region of France where the stage began held off a charging group of Tour de France favorites, willed on by his directeur sportif, two-time Paris-Roubaix winner Marc Madiot, screaming encouragement from the team car. Inside of 5km it appeared that the chasing group might catch Pinot, with a flat road and headwind left to go, but Pinot dug deep enough to cap the biggest win of his budding career, with 26 seconds to spare.
Bradley Wiggins still holds the yellow jersey after Stage 8 after taking hold of it after Stage 7 on Saturday. He's been considered one of the hottest riders in the sport of late, so his performance so far in the 2012 Tour isn't especially shocking.
Wiggins finished fourth in Sunday's stage, behind Pinot, Cadel Evans and Tony Gallopin. Evans is currently second in the entire race behind Wiggins, with Vincenzo Nibali not far behind in third.
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