These are the profiles for the individual stages in the 2008 Tour de France, with Stage 1 on 5 July, and Stage 11 on 16 July.

Stages

Stage 1 5 July 2008 — Brest to Plumelec, 197.5 km

For the first time since 1967, the tour started with a road stage rather than the traditional prologue. The stage was hilly with four fourth category climbs through the Monts d'Arrée in the department of Finistère. The finish at Plumelec is uphill on the Côte de Cadoual, with a 1.7 km climb at 6.2%. As there were no time bonuses in the three intermediate sprints, the first rider home wore the yellow jersey at the start of stage 2.

An eight-man breakaway formed at the 3 km mark, and it got away for some time. At the first feeding station, Hervé Duclos-Lassalle crashed and sustained a broken left wrist, becoming the first rider to have to abandon the 2008 Tour. At about the 30 km to go mark, two in the break, Lilian Jégou and David de la Fuente got away from the other six after a short series of attacks and counter-attacks. The peloton, paced by Silence–Lotto, increased pace when the other six rejoined them, and Jegou and de la Fuente were caught at around the 7 km to go mark. At that point, the peloton split into several groups for the run in toward the finish, won by Alejandro Valverde. One of the pre-race favourites, Mauricio Soler, fell with 20 km remaining and lost more than three minutes.

Stage 1 result and general classification after stage 1 RankRiderTeamTime1 4h 36' 07" 2 + 1" 3 + 1" 4 + 1" DSQ + 1" 6 + 1" 7 + 1" 8 + 1" 9 + 1" 10 + 1"

Stage 2 6 July 2008 — Auray to Saint-Brieuc, 164.5 km

The second stage was another hilly stage, with three fourth category climbs and the third category "wall" at Mûr-de-Bretagne.

Sylvain Chavanel and Thomas Voeckler established a breakaway at the first categorized climb, reaching a maximum advantage of 6'25'' before being joined by Agritubel teammates Christophe Moreau and David Lelay with 57 km remaining. The four Frenchmen were caught by the peloton in the final 2 km, and the sprint was won by Thor Hushovd.

Stage 2 result RankRiderTeamTime1 3h 45' 13" 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 2 RankRiderTeamTime1 8h 21' 20" 2 + 1" 3 + 1" 4 + 1" 5 + 1" 6 + 1" 7 + 1" DSQ + 1" 9 + 1" 10 + 1"

Stage 3 7 July 2008 — Saint-Malo to Nantes, 208 km

Stage 3 was flat, with no ranking climbs, which was expected to favour the sprinters at the finish alongside the River Loire in Nantes.

A four-man breakaway formed at the 9 km mark, comprising William Frischkorn, Samuel Dumoulin, Paolo Longo Borghini, and Romain Feillu. They quickly took the three intermediate sprints available on the course and had a maximum advantage of 14 minutes before the peloton began to reel them in. Several teams helped with the workload to bring the breakaway back. With the day's early rain saturating the road, Fabian Wegmann crashed around 60 km in, needing to change his bike minutes later.

For many kilometers, the time gap didn't decrease beyond about 6'30" to 6'45", leading to speculation that the four in the breakaway could survive to the line. The teams of the prominent sprinters came forward to make a faster pace at around 35 km to go. With about 23 km to go, Ángel Gómez and Nicki Sørensen were involved in a crash that split the peloton into three fragments, the second of which contained the white jersey Riccardo Riccò and Denis Menchov, finished 38 seconds behind the first, which contained the yellow jersey Alejandro Valverde. The third group contained Christophe Moreau. Gómez eventually had to abandon the Tour.

The breakaway survived to the finish, giving the Tour a new maillot jaune for the next day's individual time trial. Dumoulin won the sprint to the line.

Stage 3 result RankRiderTeamTime1 5h 05' 27" 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 + 14" 5 + 2' 03" 6 + 2' 03" 7 + 2' 03" 8 + 2' 03" 9 + 2' 03" 10 + 2' 03"General classification after stage 3 RankRiderTeamTime1 Romain Feillu 13h 27' 05" 2 + 35" 3 + 1' 42" 4 + 1' 45" 5 + 1' 46" 6 + 1' 46" 7 + 1' 46" 8 + 1' 46" 9 + 1' 46" 10 + 1' 46"

Stage 4 8 July 2008 — Cholet, 29.5 km (ITT)

The fourth stage was an individual time trial over a flat course to the west of Cholet in the department of Maine-et-Loire.

Denis Menchov and Jens Voigt set nearly identical times about two-thirds of the way into the time trial, with Menchov one second better. It stood as best until reigning world time trial champion and stage favorite Fabian Cancellara gained a one-second advantage, despite having been behind Menchov's and Voigt's pace at both intermediate time checks. The surprise of the day came when Stefan Schumacher beat Cancellara by 33 seconds, having similar leads at each time check. Cadel Evans, David Millar, and Kim Kirchen also beat Cancellara, but could not match Schumacher.

As was expected, the top three men in the GC, having been in a breakaway almost the entire previous day, fell in the overall standings after the time trial, and the Tour had its third different rider in yellow at the day's end.

Stage 4 result RankRiderTeamTime DSQ 35' 44"1 36' 02" 2 s.t. 3 + 5" 4 + 15" 5 + 16" 6 + 17" 7 + 19" 8 + 23" 9 + 29"General classification after stage 4 RankRiderTeamTime DSQ 14h 04' 41"1 14h 04' 53" 2 s.t. 3 + 9" 4 + 21" 5 + 25" 6 + 29" 7 + 35" 8 + 46" 9 + 49"

Stage 5 9 July 2008 — Cholet to Châteauroux, 232 km

This was the longest stage of the 2008 tour, over flat roads in the departments of Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, Indre-et-Loire and Indre.

Mauricio Soler fell in the neutral zone before the start; already suffering injuries from a fall on the opening day, the Colombian who won the polka-dot jersey last year finally succumbed and retired from the race at the 11 km mark of stage five.

The stage was led almost from start to finish by three breakaway riders. The French trio of Lilian Jégou, Florent Brard and national champion Nicolas Vogondy opened up a gap of more than eight minutes, which was slowly whittled away by the chasing peloton. Vogondy broke away from his compatriots in the final 1.5 km, only to be overhauled by the sprinters around 30 metres from the line.

Mark Cavendish, who was led out by his German team-mate Gerald Ciolek, held off late attacks from Thor Hushovd, Óscar Freire and Erik Zabel, and pulled away from his rivals in the final metres to claim glory after almost five-and-a-half hours in the saddle. This was his first of a record35 stage wins for Cavendish in the Tour de France.

Stage 5 result RankRiderTeamTime1 5h 27' 52" 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 5 RankRiderTeamTime DSQ Stefan Schumacher 19h 32' 33"1 19h 32' 45" 2 s.t. 3 + 9" 4 + 21" 5 + 25" 6 + 29" 7 Thomas Lövkvist + 35" 8 + 46" 9 + 49"

Stage 6 10 July 2008 — Aigurande to Super-Besse Sancy, 195.5 km

This was the first mountain stage of the tour through the Massif Central, with two Fourth Category climbs in the first half of the race before the riders crossed the Second Category Col de la Croix-Morand after 158 km. The finish is at the ski station of Super Besse on the slopes of Puy de Sancy with a climb of 11 km at an average gradient of 4.7%, including the final 1.5 km with a maximum gradient of 10%.

A three-man breakaway, made up of Frenchmen Sylvain Chavanel, Benoît Vaugrenard and Freddy Bichot, claimed the sprints and the two small category 4 climbs early on in the stage. The group attained a maximum lead of 5'15'' after 95 km. The main field split on the climb of the Col de la Croix-Morand, with many of the sprinters and leadout men fell back into an autobus, and many short-lived attempts to catch the two remaining riders from the breakaway, Vaugrenard having been dropped.

Chavanel and Bichot survived to the top of the Col de la Croix-Morand, giving Chavanel sufficient points on the day's climbs to gain the lead in the King of the Mountains classification, but he was caught with 20m remaining, and Bichot 7 km later. The autobus rejoined the second peloton on the descent from the Col de la Croix-Morand, before the field split into several small groups again. Riders who posed no threat to the GC attacked on the way up to Super-Besse, and the yellow jersey group, still being paced by Caisse d'Epargne, let them all go. Even when Christian Vande Velde, sixth overall and a member of the first place team Garmin–Chipotle, launched an attack, Caisse d'Epargne did not respond.

Finally, at the 1 kilometer to go mark, the peloton came forward to bring back those who had broken away. Virtually all of the GC contenders were at the front of the main group. The last of Valverde's teammates peeled off to open the sprint to the line, won by Riccardo Riccò. In seeking a position for the final sprint, the yellow jersey wearer Stefan Schumacher caught the wheel of Kim Kirchen with 300m remaining, and fell. Since the finish was on an uphill climb, the rule giving anyone who crashes in the final 3 kilometers the same time as the group they were in upon crashing was not invoked, and he lost 32'' on the stage, and Kirchen took the overall lead.

Stage 6 result RankRiderTeamTime DSQ 4h 57' 52"1 4h 57' 53" 2 s.t. 3 + 3" 4 + 3" 5 + 6" 6 + 6" 7 + 6" 8 + 6" DSQ + 6"General classification after stage 6 RankRiderTeamTime1 24h 30' 41" 2 + 6" DSQ + 16" 4 + 44" 5 + 47" 6 + 54" 7 + 1' 03" 8 + 1' 12" 9 + 1' 21" 10 + 1' 21"

Stage 7 11 July 2008 — Brioude to Aurillac, 159 km

This is a short stage along the steep roads of the Massif Central, through the Monts du Cantal with the third category Côte de Fraisse coming after only 11 km. After a fourth category climb came a pair of Category Two climbs: the Col d'Entremont after 101 km, and the Pas de Peyrol, before descending to Aurillac via another fourth category climb.

Early crosswinds split the peloton. Damiano Cunego crashed after about 50 km and although he rejoined the leading group, he missed a later break, losing 33 seconds on the day. A breakaway made up of Josep Jufré, Luis León Sánchez, David de la Fuente and Vincenzo Nibali formed on the way up the Col d'Entremont and were caught by a group of nineteen, including most of the overall favourites, with about 9 km remaining, but Sánchez counterattacked on the descent and held on to win the stage.

De la Fuente's three leads over the tops of climbs earned him the lead in the King of the Mountains classification, while four riders, including Agritubel team leader Christophe Moreau failed to finish and Magnus Bäckstedt finished outside regulation time.

Liquigas rider Manuel Beltrán was revealed after this stage to have failed a blood doping test earlier in the tour, and was withdrawn by his team.

Stage 7 result RankRiderTeamTime1 3h 52' 53" DSQ + 6" 3 + 6" 4 + 6" 5 + 6" 6 + 6" 7 + 6" 8 + 6" 9 + 6" 10 + 6"General classification after stage 7 RankRiderTeamTime1 28h 23' 40" 2 + 6" DSQ + 16" 4 + 44" 5 + 1' 03" 6 + 1' 12" 7 + 1' 14" 8 + 1' 21" 9 + 1' 21" 10 + 1' 21"

Stage 8 12 July 2008 — Figeac to Toulouse, 172.5 km

This was a connecting stage from the Massif Central to the Pyrenees and had four categorized climbs in the first half of the race before the finish in Toulouse.