It's often a tough task to tell at a glance which teams are doing well at the Tour de France, there are 22 of them going around France, each with their own objectives and strengths.
So borrowing a tool from other sports, Cycling Central will run a Power Rankings during this Tour de France. It's a quick guide from stage to stage of which teams are excelling and which are unlucky or faring poorly.
1. BORA-hansgrohe (up one position)
Peter Sagan took a big gamble in the sprint, leaving Groenewegen's wheel to follow Richeze in the finale. He had to hit out early as Richeze balked, leaving himself as a sitting duck for the riders coming from behind. It worked out in the end, another second place for the world champion, who now holds a convincing 63 point lead for green.
Best Results: 1st (Stages 2+5), 2nd (Stages 1,4,8), 3rd (Stage 7), 1 day in Yellow, Green Jersey - Peter Sagan
2. BMC (up one position)
Another bonus second for Greg van Avermaet as his stint in the Yellow Jersey stretches to six stages. He'll be keen to have a rare opportunity to win in yellow in the next stage. He won't get many better opportunities than this to take what would be a famous result.
Best Results: 1st - Team Time Trial, Yellow Jersey - Greg van Avermaet, 3rd GC - Tejay van Garderen
3. Quick-Step Floors (down two positions)
Again it was a superb leadout by Maximilian Richeze, unfortunately this time Fernando Gaviria didn't follow him. The Argentinian was left looked around for his Colombian sprinter and Gaviria got boxed in.
He tried to fight his way out, for which he got relegated to the back of the pack and lost important sprint jersey points. Julian Alaphillipe fell out of the top 10, all in all the worst day of the Tour for Quick-Step Floors.
Best Results: 1st (Stages 1+4), 2nd (Stage 7) Fernando Gaviria, 3rd - Philippe Gilbert - Stage 5, 3rd Team Time Trial, 1 day in Yellow.
4. Lotto NL-Jumbo (up one position)
Two wins in a row from Dylan Groenewegen and the nuggety Dutchman appears to be really hitting his stride. It's not really down to what his team is doing, he's handling the final kilometres all by himself very adeptly and then unleashing his awesome power to win.
He's the fastest, probably slightly ahead of Marcel Kittel and Fernando Gaviria at the moment, the key will come down to who is positioned the best for future sprints.
Best Results: 1st (Stages 7+8) - Dylan Groenewegen, 16th GC - Primoz Roglic, 20th GC - Steven Kruisjwijk
5. Team Sky (down one position)
The cobbles beckon for Sky. They could realistically take some time on their competition, but they'll likely be happy with not conceding any to their main rivals.
Best Results: 2nd - Team Time Trial, 2nd GC - Geraint Thomas, 13th GC - Chris Froome
6. Bahrain Merida (down one position)
Sonny Colbrelli hasn't been a factor in the flat stage sprints, and that continued here, as the Italian placed 13th on the day, adding to his 12th from yesterday.
Vincenzo Nibali, the 'Shark of Messina', will be looking for a repeat of the 2014 Tour on the cobbles of Roubaix, he was third on the stage and went on to win the Yellow Jersey.
Best Results: 2nd (Stages 2+5) - Sonny Colbrelli, 16th GC - Vincenzo Nibali
7. Trek-Segafredo (up two positions)
John Degenkolb appears to be working his way into some form, the type of form that hasn't been seen from the German since his horrific training crash in early 2017. His third-place was helped by the relegation of Andre Greipel and Fernando Gaviria, but he's clearly better than the start of the race.
Another Degenkolb stage coming up, this time highlighting his cobble prowess.
Best Results: KOM jersey - Tom Skuijns, 19th GC - Bauke Mollema
8. Mitchelton-Scott (no change)
They stayed out of trouble... they'll need to continue that run over the cobbles.
Best Results: 5th - Team Time Trial, 12th GC - Adam Yates
9. Movistar (up one position)
When was the last time Movistar had a sprinter? JJ Rojas in his prime?
Best Results: 3rd (Stage 6), 7th GC - Alejandro Valverde, 11th GC - Mikel Landa, 27th GC- Nairo Quintana
10. UAE Team Emirates (down one position)
Awful day for Dan Martin, it seems unfair that a nice guy like him has such rotten luck. The crash with 16 kilometres to go looks to have beaten him up quite a bit, he was pedaling in quite a labourious style after the fall and clearly took a fair bit of skin off. He lost over a minute to his GC rivals.
Alexander Kristoff did a really good job, especially considering his leadout riders were a kilometre behind him. He ran a battling fourth.
Best Results: 1st (Stage 6), 31st GC - Dan Martin
11. Groupama- FDJ (no change)
The leadout train for this team is having a few good stages, unfortunately that hasn't really affected Demare's performance. This time the Frenchman somehow got separated from Ramon Sinkledam and Jacopo Guarnieri, they were at the front of the race in the final kilometre looking around for Demare while he languished back in the pack.
He made up quite a bit of ground to finish fifth with the aid of relegations but the team will have expected to have done better to this point of the race.
Best Result: 3rd - Arnaud Demare - Stage 2
12. Wanty-Groupe Gobert (no change)
For a two-man breakaway, Marco Minaard worked well with Direct Energie's Grellier to go quite deep in the stage. Still he missed out on the most aggressive rider award.
The team has been a key part of keeping the flat stages interesting, arguably the main function of a wildcard entrant.
Best Results: 3 days in KOM jersey - Dion Smith
13. EF Education First-Drapac (no change)
A nasty crash for team captain Simon Clarke is bad news for the squad. Clarke has said he is ok, with the injury from the crash most likely to be some form of whiplash as he described it.
Best Result: 7th GC - Rigoberto Uran
14. Team Sunweb (no change)
Nikias Arndt is having a go at the sprints now, the closest he got to a result in the stage was securing Greipel's relegation for a headbutting him.
Best Results: 7th (Stage 1) - Michael Matthews, 14th GC - Tom Dumoulin
15. Astana (no change)
Jakob Fuglsang has been under the radar so far... can he reprise the ride that took him to second in the 2014 Tour cobbled stage?
Best Result: 9th GC - Jakob Fuglsang
16. AG2R-La Mondiale (no change)
Nothing doing in Stage 8. They'll be thrilled if Bardet avoids losing even more time over the cobbles.
Best Results: 2nd (Stage 6) - Pierre Latour, 22nd GC - Romain Bardet
17. Direct Energie (up three positions)
Direct Energie aren't achieving much this race in the results column, but they are doing some important work in the entertainment stakes. Fabien Grellier was the man today, he had some really good fight in the closing kilometres to keep the peloton at bay when it was clear that they would make the catch.
Best Result: 12th - Lilian Calmejane - Stage 4
18. Lotto Soudal (down one position)
Andre Greipel tweeted after the stage and probably has the right to feel hard done by. His reaction to Arndt was initiated by the Sunweb rider trying to shove Greipel off a wheel, he wasn't being aggressive.
Nonetheless it's not a second-placed finish and instead a 92nd.
Best Result: 3rd - Andre Greipel - Stage 4
19. Katusha-Alpecin (down two positions)
This team is rapidly coming apart at the seams. Dimitry Konychev, the team DS came out in the French media calling Marcel Kittel egotistical and not worth the money they pay him. Kittel did poorly on the stage, he and his leadout clearly aren't on the same page and Kittel doesn't have the skills to position himself.
The sprinter then stormed onto the team bus and was heard yelling at someone. With his poor results and Zakarin slipping down the general classification, there's very little going right for the squad.
Best Results: 3rd - Marcel Kittel - Stage 1, 24th GC Ilnur Zakarin
20. Cofidis (no change)
No sprint for Christophe Laporte as he got caught up in the Dan Martin crash. He's been the main man for the squad so far.
Best Results: 5th (Stages 1+7) Christophe Laporte
21. Fortuneo-Samsic (no change)
No breakaway for the French squad, and no interest outside that.
Best Result: 1 day in KOM jersey - Kevan Ledanois
22. Dimension Data (no change)
There wasn't anything about Cavendish's performance that looked like he's going to turn around the fortunes of Dimension Data. He lost the wheel of his leadout when they were on the front of the race, then kept on being unable to follow when the pace was raised in the final 500 metres.
Best Result: 8th (Stage 8) - Mark Cavendish
