11/07/10 - Schleck gets it! His first stage win in the Tour de France.

Andy Schleck wins Stage 8 of the Tour De France

Evans in yellow as crash ends Armstrong's hopes

While everyone expected Alberto Contador to stamp his authority on the Tour de France, it was instead Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck who escaped to claim the team's second stage win and gain time on the GC.

The slim Luxembourger jetted away in the final kilometre of the finishing climb to Morzine-Avoriaz and out-sprinted Euskaltel-Euskadi's Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez to win the stage and gain an important handful of seconds on Contador.

"It was my first real victory of the season," said Schleck to TV interviewers after the race. "I took a lot of confidence out of my performance today. It puts me in a very good position right now, but I have to thank my team for being always around me, protecting me."

"I've got to get my head around the position that I'm in now," said Schleck, with a rest day ahead of him tomorrow. "There are still a lot of very hard days, but I am pretty relaxed for the moment. I've done my thing, and I hope I can do a great race and I hope I don't have a bad day."

The yellow jersey passed from the shoulders of Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) onto those of Cadel Evans, who hung tough onto Contador's group despite an early crash during the stage.

Robert Gesink won the sprint from the small group of favourites, which also included Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and Levi Leipheimer (Radioshack).

Leipheimer inherited the mantle of his RadioShack team's leadership after a crash from Lance Armstrong before the base of the first major climb of the day took the wind out of the sails of the seven-time Tour champion. He conceded 11 minutes and 44 seconds by the end of the stage, his hopes of an eighth Tour win all but over.

Lance Armstrong and Bradley Wiggins lose time  "BigTime"

1 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 37:57:09
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:20
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:01:01
4 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:01:03
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0:01:10
6 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions 0:01:11
7 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 0:01:45
8 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack 0:02:14
9 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:02:15
10 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia 0:02:31