What was set to be an epic showdown between the top general classification riders turned into a bit of a letdown when a sheet of ice caused the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia to be cut 27.5 km short. Instead of racing over the Colle delle Finestre and then up the Sestriere, the riders instead finished their race with 1 km to go to the Finestre summit.
Demi Vollering of FDJ United-Suez took stage honours ahead of Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) from a group of four. Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) crossed the line fourth, just behind the other three, and held onto her overall lead by 50 seconds with one stage remaining.
Despite the shortened stage, there were still some moves in the minor placings of the overall standings. Van der Breggen held onto the pink jersey, but Vollering was able to bring her gap down by 10 seconds. Niedermaier also remains third overall, 1:20 behind Van der Breggen. Off the podium, Isabella Holmgren extended her fourth-place advantage over Marlen Reusser (Movistar), who was one of the first GC riders to suffer on the iconic climb but still managed to claw her way up to sixth on the stage, 57 seconds behind the winner.
[race_result id=9064 stage_id=90181 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=9064 stage_id=90181 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
How it happened
- It took 39 km for a breakaway to establish, and it wasn't for lack of trying. Finally, with 66 km remaining, a move of 16 riders, including the winner of stage 7, Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez), separated from the peloton. On the early slopes of the Colle delle Finestre, with 43 km to go, that large group was already breaking apart, leaving eight riders at the head of the race. Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), who finished second behind Gery on Friday, was also in the move.
- At the top of the climb, the organisers frantically tried to make the road safe for the riders. In the hours before the stage, a drift of snow slid down the mountainside, blocking the road. While the riders were already on the climb, the cars at the top were unable to pass.
- Since it took so long for a group to go, they didn't have much of a gap when the "peloton" hit the slopes of Colle delle Finestre. With 14 km of climbing left, and the breakaway splintering, the gap was already below half a minute.
- One of the first favourites to be distanced on the climb was Marlen Reusser (Movistar), who hit the ground twice on Friday. The Giro is Reusser's first race since fracturing a lumbar vertebra in the Tour of Flanders.
- With 35 km to go, it was announced that due to an unstable sheet of ice, the race would finish 1 km from the top of the Finestre, cutting the Sestriere climb out of the race completely. That meant stage 8 would finish some 27.5 km earlier than planned.
- This meant that the pace in the group of favourites needed to be a lot faster to make any kind of difference in the (now) final 7 km of the race...
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