Dan Martin of Cannondale Garmin was second on stage eight of the 102nd Tour De France.
With Katusha’s Luca Paolini sent home 185 riders started the Rennes to Mûr-de-Bretagne and after ten kilometres, Sylvain Chavanel (IAM) and Barz Huzarski (Bora Argon) got into the lead with a twenty second ahead of Romain Sicard (Europcar) and Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne-Seche who caught up with them to form a four man break.
They took a lead of 3.37 and going into the last one hundred kilometres they were still 2.10 clear.
Sicard took the point on the Côte du Mont Bel-Air and there were big crowds on the roads in Brittany as Perichon took the twenty points for the intermediate sprint with points leader Andre Greipel taking eleven points.
With 69.7kms left, the break was caught by some in a front group to form a group of fourteen riders before Lars Bak launched a new attack with Michal Golas and Huzarski.
This trio was allowed to dangle out front never getting more than two minutes clear and were thirty seconds ahead with 17.5kms remaining.
There was a crash involving Nicolas Edet and a couple of AG2R riders
Heading towards the final climb – the Mûr-de-Bretagne and with eight kilometres to go, it was all back together.
BMC took to the front as Andre Greipel dropped off the back of the peloton as speeds reached 72kmh.
Chris Froome in the yellow jersey, was near the front with Geraint Thomas for company as the favourites moved to the front of the bunch which started on the Mûr-de-Bretagne with twho kilometres left.
Team Sky were now setting the pace as Cannondale Garmin brought up Dan Martin.
The third category climb started with ramps of 11% as Simon Yates attacked before Chris Froome attacked.
Then with seven hundred metres to go, Alexis Vuillermoz of AG2R made a break for it down the left. The group of favourites did not react but Dan Martin did. The West Midlands born Irishman tried to bring back Vuillermoz.
However, the AG2R was away and he won in 4.20.55 with Dan Martin finishing in second place five seconds later. Third was Alejandro Valverde of Movistar, with Peter Sagan of Tinkoff-Saxo in fourth, followed by Tony Gallopin, Greg Van Avermaet, Adam Yates, Chris Froome, Bauke Mollema and Tejay Van Garderen of BMC.
Vuillermoz said:” Today I wanted to do something special. Three times I tried to go and finally on the third occasion it worked. I got my head down and pedalled for all I was worth and it is just about now that I am beginning to realise that I have won the stage.
“I am not sure that in the mountains I will be able to take on Chris Froome but I am a puncheur so I can fancy my chances and this was the sort of climb that suits me so I feel really good about today. Everyone has their specialities and this was mine today.”
Chris Froome continues to lead the race by eleven seconds from Peter Sagan.