On paper it looked like a good day for the breakaway, perhaps even an opportunity for Tadej Pogačar to relinquish the pink jersey to an unthreatening stage hunter for a few days, but though the fight for the breakaway was aggressive from the start, UAE Team Emirates kept them on a short leash. And lo, the pink jersey took his third stage win of the Giro d’Italia – three out of eight! – atop Prati di Tivo, ever so slightly tightening his already vice-like grip on the race.
The GC standings weren’t too dramatically affected after stage 8 as most of the favourites crossed the line in Pogačar’s shadow, but Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla), Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek) saw their overall aspirations sink further – or disintegrate entirely – after losing contact on the final climb.
- After a long fight on the early climbs – one classified, one not – a 14-rider breakaway was established including a few within striking distance of pink. That is, on a typical breakaway day they might have hoped for a long enough leash to reduce their deficits, even take over the pink jersey for a few days. Bardet was the best placed among them at +5:23, with Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) and Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) close behind inside six minutes, and stage 1-winner Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) 7:22 down, while stage hunters Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) and Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco-AlUla) were among those hunting for an elusive Giro stage win.
- However, UAE Team Emirates did not let them get much breathing room with a maximum gap of about 2:30, and at the foot of the final climb of Prati di Tivo (Cat.1; 14.7 km at 7%), the breakaway had less than 40 seconds over the shrinking peloton.
- Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) was the last man standing, beating the peloton to the bonus sprint at 6 km to go, but his 20-second lead was not enough and he too was caught 4.3 km from the summit.
- Pogačar’s domestiques had trimmed the favourites group down to just 14 riders by this point, shedding white jersey-wearer Luke Plapp among (many) others, Bardet also losing touch after spending all stage in the breakaway – Storer, though, was able to hang on to net a creditable top-10 result.
- Rafał Majka was, as ever, Pogačar’s last man, holding a stiff pace for a couple of kilometres with the pink jersey sitting comfortably on his wheel.
- Not willing to wait for the race leader to make a move, Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) was the first to attack the group with 1,800 metres to go, but Pogačar couldn’t have responded faster if there’d been a rope tied to Tiberi’s wheel, Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) also attentive with his eyes on regaining the white jersey – mission accomplished.
- There were more attacks from the less-threatening contenders in Storer, Tiberi and Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), but Pogačar neutralised them all.
- A slight stalling in the group meant Majka was able to regain contact and move back to the front to lead out Pogačar in the last kilometre, ultimately launching his leader with 200 metres to go.
- Second-overall Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) was quickest to respond, but he didn’t have the kick to match the pink jersey, settling for second ahead of Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) as Pogačar raised his arms for a mantle-worthy finish photo in his pink panther suit.
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Quotes of the day:
“I was not expecting it at all today but as a team, we rode super well from the beginning. We came with a good time gap to the last climb and the team did a super good job to the finish. Rafa [Majka] did an amazing leadout and it was amazing to win here again in Prati di Tivo [where he won a stage at the 2021 Tirreno-Adriatico].”
Pogačar went on to explain that it had not in fact been the plan to go for the stage from the start (apparently), and that it’s perhaps thanks to one Danish powerhouse – who was reportedly stung twice by bees during Friday’s ITT – that the decision was made on the road.
“I think my teammates wanted to go for the stage win as soon as we survived the first long categorised climb with Mikkel [Bjerg]. He came back to the bunch and he was all in for chasing the group in front. Mikkel and Laengen did a super good job until the final climb and then at the bottom when I saw our guys are still good: Domen [Novak], Felix [Großschartner] and Rafa [Majka], I was confident that we could win today.”
Brief analysis
- That’s another stage win ticked off for Pogačar who has only once not claimed a hattrick at each Grand Tour he’s raced – he only won two at the 2023 Tour de France – but after an all-day effort from his team (again), his stage 8 victory was pretty conservative for the two-time Tour champ and multiple Monument winner. A stage win is a stage win, though, and unlike yesterday’s ITT, he was finally able to celebrate in the pink jersey, but he only extended his lead by four seconds over Martínez. So, was it worth it?
- After a great individual time trial performance that put him into the white jersey of best young rider, Luke Plapp had a definitive jour sans on the hardest mountain stage thus far. Making the bold choice of white shorts under the ‘Eataly’-sponsored white jersey, Plapp was very visible as he hovered around the back of the GC group until he went pop quite spectacularly. In losing over 20 minutes on the Prati di Tivo climb, Plapp falls 27 places on GC, essentially ending any hopes he might have had for a strong overall result or fighting for the white jersey, but he is now free to go all in for stage wins.
What’s next?
Stage 9 takes the peloton back to Naples, home of two vintage stages in recent editions with a memorable breakaway display from Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Dstny) in 2022 and Mads Pedersen’s (Lidl-Trek) trilogy-completing victory last year, snatching the stage from Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) and Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco-AlUla) in the finishing straight. The breakaway will once again be a hot ticket so the first hour or so will be taken at blistering speed, not least for being mostly downhill, and with any luck the attackers may stay clear until the punchy finale, or else the sprinters’ teams will hunt down their own opportunity before the first rest day.
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