Image source, AFP

Tinkoff's sporting director Sean Yates spoke to French TV from his team car earlier: “Alberto had a bit of fever this morning. He told us at the beginning of the race that he wasn't feeling super and it's obvious. We've told him to stay quiet. Now the peloton is going slower, which is better for his recovery after the fast start this morning.”  

Let's see how the two-time Tour de France winner gets on. 

The 20-strong breakaway group are beginning the second climb of the day, the Port del Canto. They lead the peloton by three minutes 45 seconds. 

Meanwhile Tinkoff's Alberto Contador, who has been struggling with a fever, is having a long chat with his team car. 

White jersey holder Adam Yates has been talking to French television and had this to say about his general classification challenge: “I'll stay with the GC riders and if I can, I'll follow Chris Froome till the end.” 

Go on my son! 

BBC Radio 5 Live

Don't forget that you can catch up with our brilliant Tour de France podcast where Rob Hatch, Rob Hayles and OJ Borg have been discussing the thrills and spills of stage eight and look ahead to today's merciless climbing. 

They also discuss whether Chris Froome's attack was really unplanned given he had a bigger gear on his bike, Adam Yates' success and how Mark Cavendish remains in the race despite finishing 39 minutes behind Froome.

All while recording it in a car! These boys are the business.

Go on, be a devil and take a listen.

Thibaut Pinot and Thomas de Gendt are brought back by their breakaway companions. The peloton, which now includes Movistar's Alejandro Valverde, is now one minute 30 seconds behind the leaders.   

Rob Hatch
BBC Radio 5 live commentator

I think everybody would agree that it would have been beautiful for Adam Yates to have moved into the yellow jersey. 

At the top of the climb before Chris Froome attacked, and even for the first two or three kilometres when Froome was out in front, Adam Yates was the virtual leader of the Tour de France.

But as we saw, there is a difference between being the virtual yellow jersey and actual yellow jersey. We can go backwards and forwards over the morals, but this is a bike race and Team Sky did what they had to do.

Image source, Getty Images

You will recall from yesterday that Adam Yates was in contention for the yellow jersey before Chris Froome's kamikaze attack. 

Was that a harsh move from Team Sky, who could have allowed the 23-year old Orica-BikeExchange a brief taste of glory? 

Let us know what you think via #bbccycling, external

The 21-group out in front has had its gap reduced to 45 seconds by the peloton. Movistar's Alejandro Valverde looks to be easing off to join the chasing pack but Thibaut Pinot and Thomas de Gendt  are attacking away from the leaders.

Speaking of the polka dot jersey, these were the results over the first climb of the day - the Port de la Bonaigue. 

1. Thibaut Pinot, 10 pts 

2. Thomas De Gendt, 8 pts 

3. Rafal Majka, 6 pts 

4. Stef Clement, 4 pts 

5. Jesus Herrada, 2 pts 

6. George Bennett, 1 pt 

The home hope Pinot has some stamina, he was part of a breakaway yesterday, but then fell away. 

Image source, AFP

Britain may have decided to leave Europe a few weeks ago, but it is bossing the Tour de France. 

Chris Froome's win made it five stage victories out of eight in this year's Tour, with three of the four jersey held by Britons too.

Froome is in yellow, Bury's Adam Yates, who is also second in the general classification, is in the best young rider's white jersey and Manxman Mark Cavendish is still in green after slumping home knackered last night. 

Only Rafal Majka of Tinkoff is preventing a clean sweep, but who knows who might be holding the king of the mountains polka dot jersey by the end of the day? 

Image source, AFP

We lost our first rider of the Tour yesterday - Michael Morkov of Katusha - which was a record length of time before a first withdrawal.

But he has been joined by two more this morning: Mark Cavendish's Dimension Data team-mate Mark Renshaw and Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ).   

So we are now down to 195 riders in the 103rd Tour de France. 

Image source, AFP

The stage is already over an hour old as 197 riders started at 11:04 BST for another day of punishment. 

The riders are up and over the first climb of the day, the Port de la Bonaigua, and there have been plenty of early attacks. 

A 45-man breakaway, which included Movistar's Alejandro Valverde, Tinkoff's Rafal Majka and Peter Sagan, FDJ's Thibaut Pinot and Lotto-Soudal's Thomas de Gendt has been reduced to 21 men. 

The peloton are two minutes five seconds behind them. 

Image source, Tour de France

If the riders thought stage eight was tough, get a load of stage nine. Mark Cavendish, who finished more than 39 minutes behind Chris Froome yesterday, will not be best pleased.

The riders start in Spain, negotiate three category one climbs, one category two, and then it's a hors category climb up to Andorra, the first summit finish of this year. 

Tour stages don't come much tougher. 

Image source, Getty Images

I'm sure that Chris Froome's unexpected attack down the last climb of the day on yesterday's tortuous stage has been talk of every town, not just Manchester.

For a man renowned for his climbing skills, it really came out of nowhere. Or did it? More on that later.

Whatever the plan, the end result was that Froome won the stage with a stunning ride and now wears the yellow jersey.

Question is: will we see a response from his rivals today on another gut-buster in the Pyrenees?

Image source, BBC Sport

A slightly circuitous route into work on the bus this morning, thanks to a mass-participation cycling event taking place in Manchester today. 

It's like the Tour de France has re-routed to Salford. 

Wonder if any of them were descending on their crossbars, a la Chris Froome?