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.