Top contenders hold fire in Stage 8 of Tour de France

SUPER-BESSE, France – The attacks never came on the first mountain trek of the Tour de France, as defending champion Alberto Contador and his main rival, Andy Schleck, both held fire and let others contest victory during the eighth stage.

There was much hype about the possibility of a first hilltop duel following a crash-marred week of nervous racing on flat roads.

But with much harder climbs to follow in the Pyrenees and Alps, three-time Tour winner Contador preferred to save energy on Saturday’s stage in the Massif Central, which Rui Alberto Costa held on to win after a solo breakaway.

When Costa surged ahead late on the 117-mile trek from Aigurande to Super-Besse, the likes of Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan and Philippe Gilbert of Belgium tried – and failed – to chase the Portuguese rider down.

Norwegian rider Thor Hushovd kept the overall lead heading into today’s ninth stage, just 1 second ahead of Evans, something Hushovd described as “a miracle” since he’s not a renowned climber and had expected to lose the jersey.

Schleck remains 12 seconds off the lead in sixth place, while Contador is still 1:42 behind Hushovd in 20th.

The stage featured a sharp category-2 climb up Col de la Croix and a final climb of 1 mile.

Gilbert of Belgium made up a huge amount of time on it, but finished 12 seconds adrift of Costa, with Evans finishing 15 seconds back.

“I needed a few hundred more meters,” Gilbert said. “The stage was very fast, there was a favorable wind. The last climb was very hard, I had to sit back down near the end of the line.

“The last 200 meters were very long, but I’ll take a second place on the Tour de France any day.”

Today’s ninth stage is another medium mountain route from Issoire to Saint-Flour, before riders get a well-earned rest day on Monday.