Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) saw his dream of winning the 2020 Tour de France fade away when he fell on the second climb of the day, the Porte de Vallès, with 40km remaining on stage 8.

The Frenchman, who entered the first day in the Pyrenees in ninth place overall, was only 13 seconds behind Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) in the race lead, but eventually finished more than 25 minutes behind.

With Jumbo Visma setting the pace, the 30-year-old was separated with 41km to go, almost halfway up the HC mountain in Portes de Valles.

Just before Pinot fell, Grupama-FDJ had already lost road captain William Bonnet, and the remaining Grupama-FDJ riders struggled around Pinot, but the gap widened from just 15 seconds to over 6 minutes as the peloton entered Porto do Valles.

Pinot crashed in the last 3km of the first, rainy and dangerous stage in Nice. Pinot was given the same time as the leading group and rode the rest of the first week unscathed.

On stage 7, the Frenchman and his team were still there when the peloton split in the crosswind that cost him 1:40 last year. But going into stage 8, he spoke of the strength of the other teams.

After falling on stage 8, Pinot appeared to stretch his back, but the French media quickly linked his performance to the after-effects of his stage 1 crash. Pinot finished 25:23 behind stage winner Nance Peters (AG2R La Mondiale) in Roudanville and 18:43 behind the GC group.

After the finish of stage 8, Marc Madiot told Eurosport: I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry. I don't think he has recovered from his crash on the first stage of the Tour. In the mountains, it's always difficult anyway."

"He was struggling from the second stage. It just wasn't at the same level as the Criterium du Dauphiné. Today was a tough day for him.

"I want to recover, have a rest day, and go for the stage win or the mountains jersey.