Some stages, nothing happens. Other stages, EVERYTHING happens. Stage 8 was the latter. Let's break it down piece by piece, starting with the winner:

Hello, Nans Peters!

A big, fast breakaway got the stage started. The names: Benoît Cosnefroy and Nans Peters of AG2R-La Mondiale, Ilnur Zakarin of CCC, Kevin Reza and Quentin Pacher of B&B Hotels-Vital Concept, Michael Morkov of Deceuninck-Quick Step of, Neilson Powless Education First, Fabien Grellier and Jérôme Cousin of Total Direct Energie, Carlos Verona of Movistar, Toms Skujins of Trek-Segrafredo, Soren Kragh Andersen of Sunweb and Ben Hermans of Israel Start-Up Nation.

That's a good breakaway! And it quickly became clear that the peloton would let them fight for the day. I saw the gap as high as 14 minutes and 15 seconds with 84.7 kilometers to go, near the top of the first Category 1 climb.

Cosnefroy solidified the polka dot jersey by taking the first summit without much of a chase. Then the stage-hunting began.

Cousin went solo with 58.4 kilometers to go in the stage, and gained as much as 54 seconds on his breakmates at the foot of the Hors Categorie Port de Balès. He was caught and dropped along with Cosnefroy on the lower slopes, however. Then Peters launched his attack with 8.5 kilometers to the summit, just as the ascent was hitting its steepest gradients. Zakarin and Pacher went with him, but Pacher's legs quickly gave out, leaving just two riders to duel with roughly 40 kilometers to race.

Peters then distanced a shaky-legged Zakarin on a technical (and MANIACALLY GUARDRAIL-LESS) descent, pushing his lead to more than 40 seconds at the head of the course. The gap made Peters the clear favorite to win ... assuming he didn't crack on the final Cat 1 climb up the Col de Peyresourde. And Zakarin, as fine a climber as he is a terrible descender, did claw back time, pulling up to within roughly 15 seconds.

But when Peters began the final descent alone, he just needed to stay upright to assure victory. As he pulled up to the finish line, he threw his arms out wide before grabbing his head in disbelief. Peters, just 26, is riding in his first Tour de France. He's been a promising young rider for a while now -- he holds the French record with 20 under-23 national team selections -- and has a Giro d'Italia stage win on his resume, too. But winning a Tour stage really announces his career as a big-time rider, especially as a Frenchman.

Cheers to Peters, perhaps the next great French stage hunter. As a bonus, he already has the Thomas Voeckler tongue wag down pat.

Poor damn Thibaut Pinot :(

Thibaut Pinot's inevitable day of doom arrived early this year. He has reportedly been riding in more pain than he has let on after his Stage 1 crash, and on the Tour's first monster climb he finally cracked. Cameras caught him grasping his back on the Port de Balès, as Groupama-FDJ teammates dropped back to nurse him to the finish line. His GC hopes were dead on the spot. Up ahead, Jumbo-Visma's Wout van Aert was driving an elite group of riders at a ferocious pace, and Pinot would finish 18 minutes and 56 seconds away from the yellow jersey on the general classification.

What more can be said? Pinot is clearly talented enough to contend for a yellow jersey. Barring crosswinds and a muscle tear, he might have won it last year. But that's the problem: something happens ever year. Whether his struggles are mental or physical, it's clear that Pinot does not have the fortitude necessary to win a Tour.

And that's fine! The biggest reason anyone cares so much about Pinot's quest to win a yellow jersey is that he cares so much. He could refocus on the Vuelta a España or Giro d'Italia, where if he crashes out at least there won't be mutliple cameras trying to pinpoint the moment when his heart broke. Or maybe he could contend for classics! The diet restrictions are a lot more lax, at least.

Instead, Pinot seems determined to throw himself into the maw of the Tour, destined to be chewed up, swallowed, regurgitated and reingested once he's rinsed himself off. This cycle is heartbreaking, for him, his teammates, his team director and for us, and I worry we're only going to be doing this again next year.

PLEASE THIBAUT, YOU HAVE A HAPPY GOAT-FILLED LIFE. YOU DON'T NEED THIS.

THAT was a good GC battle

Stage 8 looked like it could be a dud early on, as the peloton moved slowly behind the breakaway.

But the Port de Balès softened the legs of any hangers-on and set up an animated final climb up the Col de Peyresourde.

At the base, most GC teammates had been burned off, leaving just the biggest names: Adam Yates in yellow, Egan Bernal, Guillaume Martin, Romain Bardet, Nairo Quintana, Julian Alaphilippe, Tadej Pogacar, etc. Primoz Roglic was of course there, too, along with Tom Dumoulin supporting him in a SUPER super-domestique role.

Alaphilippe was the first rider to attempt to solo out of the group ... but he immediately cracked and dropped (he finished more than 18 minutes back of the stage winner).

Then Pogacar launched an attack, which would prove more notable. Roglic and Quintana grabbed his wheel, and eventually Egan Bernal chased the yellow jersey group back on. But Pogacar was feisty. He made a second failed attack but got the third one to stick at the approximate midpoint of the climb. Only Richie Porte (!) and Mikel Landa (!!) were able to chase, but neither made much of a dent. As Pogacar approached the summit of the Col de Peyresourde, the 21-year-old had approximately one minute on the yellow jersey group.

The moves dropped Dumoulin, as well as GC hopefuls like Emmanuel Buchmann and Esteban Chaves. Yates appeared to be in danger at times, yo-yoing off the back of the bunch, but he maintained a steady tempo to stay within shouting distance of his rivals and gamely defend the yellow jersey.

Roglic and Quintana attacked together at the start of the final descent, but would be reeled in by the yellow jersey group. Then Bardet, who had fallen earlier in the stage and been distanced on the Port de Balès, roared away near the base of the descent. (Prior to the Tour, the Frenchman claimed that he would be hunting stage wins and not overall time, but there was no other possible motivation for his attack.)

Pogacar crossed the line at 6:00 behind the winner, and 40 seconds ahead of Yates, Roglic, Bernal, et al. Bardet crossed two seconds ahead of that group. They moved up to ninth- and fourth-place on the general classification, respectively, creating even less space within a crowded top 10.

I need a cheat sheet to understand what happened today

So do I, if I'm being honest. Here are the biggest takeaways:

• Thibaut Pinot is hunting stages now -- Assuming he doesn't abandon the Tour. But if he heals up on the rest day, then his goal is clear: Animate stages as much as he can, maybe go for the polka dot jersey and start a friendly rivalry with Alaphilippe. That could be fun as hell, now that I think about it.
• Romain Bardet wants to win a yellow jersey now -- He claimed to be hunting stages, but an attack to take two seconds on the yellow jersey says otherwise. The question now is whether his team, AG2R-La Mondiale, supports those ambitions. Speaking of which ...
• AG2R is having a HELLUVA Tour -- Free of the responsibility of riding in service of a yellow jersey favorite, they just won a big stage of the Tour de France and have the top two riders on the King of the Mountains classification. PLUS Bardet is sitting just off the overall podium. Not bad!
• A lot of riders look spry -- Guillaume Martin made an impressive (though ill-fated) attack near the top of the Col de Peyresourde and finished inside the yellow jersey group. So did Rigoberto Uran, who has emerged as Education First's clear team leader at 33 years old. And Richie Porte and Mikel Landa didn't let their time losses on Friday stop them from sowing panic among the race favorites. We now have a good sense of who among the GC favorites appear to be on form, and it's a BIG group.
• Maybe this really is a wide open Tour -- Jumbo-Visma looked so dominate in leading Roglic to a Stage 4 victory, that I feared the rest of the Tour would be going through the motions. But on the Col de Peyresourde, Roglic's help was nowhere to be seen. In fairness, Van Aert did more than his share on the Port de Balès. But Sepp Kuss (USA USA USA), who had been so good that day in Orcières-Merlette, was nowhere to be seen on the Col de Peyresourde, and Dumoulin had to sacrifice his own ambitions to protect Roglic instead. There are even bigger mountain days ahead on the Tour, too. If Saturday is any indication, there isn't a single team that can take control of the major stages, and this Tour will truly be a dog fight until Paris.

[/Inhales finally] OK ... anything fun?

Richie Porte had his second child in the middle of yesterday's stage, which is exciting but also kind of a bummer for the father.

The awesome, wordless bromance between Connor Swift and Nairo Quintana.

Neilson Powless goes offroading.

There was absolutely no social distancing on the Col de Peyresourde.

The standings

STAGE 8

1. Nans Peters(AG2R-La Mondiale) -- 4hr 02min 12sec
2. Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) -- +47sec
3. Carlos Verona (Movistar) -- "
4. Ilnur Zakarin (CCC) -- +1min 09sec
5. Neilson Powless (Education First) -- +1min 41sec
6. Ben Hermans (Israel Start-Up Nation) -- +3min 42sec
7. Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- “
8. Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) -- +4min 04sec
9. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- +6min 00sec
10. Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) -- +6min 38sec

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) — 34hr 44min 52sec
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) — +3sec
3. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) — +9sec
4. Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale_ -- +11sec
5. Egan Bernal (Ineos) — +13sec
6. Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) — “
7. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) – “
8. Rigoberto Uran (Education First) -- "
9. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- +48sec
10. Enric Mas (Movistar) -- +01min 00sec

GREEN JERSEY

1. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) — 138 points
2. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — 131
3. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) -- 106
4. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- 106
5. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) — 93

POLKA DOT JERSEY

1. Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale) — 35 points
2. Nans Peters (AG2R-La Mondiale) -- 31
3. Ilnur Zakarin (CCC) -- 25
4. Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) -- 24
5. Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- 20

Stage 9 preview -- 153km from Pau to Laruns

Stage 9 will begin at 12:35 p.m. local, 6:35 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 7:30 a.m. on NBCSN. (Here’s NBC’s complete broadcast schedule).

Don’t get that channel? You’ll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.

If you can’t watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.

A fun game this year is guessing whether the general classification contenders will contest the stage or not. Uphill finish after a Category 1 Climb on Stage 6? Meh. Flat terrain with a good breeze on Stage 7? OH IT'S ON.

Stage 9 is entirely open to interpretation. There are five categorized climbs, two of them Cat 1s, on which to attack, but a descent into a flat final eight kilometers could neutralize the time gap potential. On one hand, it's the last stage before a rest day coming off a solid block of hard racing: time to attack your vulnerable rivals! On the other hand, it's the last stage before a rest day coming off a solid block of hard racing: time to take it easy and prepare for the second phase of the Tour.

The profile:

That's five categorized climbs, two of which of Cat 1s. That's a hard day in the saddle, but ithe peloton could easily dog this one. There are solid stretches of flat land between the ascents, giving everyone a chance to sit up if they want to. That said, if just one GC team decides to get cheeky the way that Bora-Hansgrohe did in the crosswinds on Stage 7, it could be chaos once again.

So hell, I don't know. We just a lot of very good cyclists throw, and take, a ton of haymakers. Your guess is as good as mine as to what's going to happen. It seems like a good day for the breakaway. Let's say Thibaut Pinot gets a shot of the real good cortisone and goes solo to the finish line from the Col de Marie Blanque.

Laruns specialties include a ham/cheese/cabbage soup called Garbure, which describes how my brain feels right now after that stage. I feel like Garbure and I think I'm going to take a nap. Good fun everyone, see you tomorrow.