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On the 186 km stage 8 of the 2015 Giro d’Italia it was Benat Intxausti who has managed to take out the win after sitting in the breakaway all day.
In a stage that had a bit of everything it started so frantically. After a 9 rider group featuring Tom Danielson (Cannondale Garmin), Gianfranco Zilioli (Androni), Branislau Samoilau (CCC), Roger Kluge (IAM), Louis Vervaeke (Lotto Soudal), Ruben Fernandez (Movistar), Eduard Grosu (Nippo Fantini), and Elia Favilli (SouthEast) went away it looked to be the day’s breakaway. However it wasn’t to be as the race splintered.
The whole stage was played out on hilly terrain and before the riders even reached the first of two categorised climbs, the pace was so high that at one stage there were only about 50 riders left in the front group. Alberto Contador was rumoured to have been distanced before live pictures began.
Contador then promptly finished second in the first intermediate sprint to add 2 seconds to his lead over Fabio Aru.
Following that the day’s breakaway was finally established with Przemyslaw Niemec (Lampre – Merida), Sebastien Reichenbach (IAM), Carlos Bentacur (Ag2r La Mondiale), Francesco Bongiorno (Bardiani), Benat Intxausti (Movistar), Franco Pellizotti (Androni), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), Muaro Finetto (Southeast), Branislav Samoilav (CCC Sprandi), Tom Danielson (Cannondale Garmin) and Kristof Vandewalle (Trek Factory) all making the cut.
However Steven Kruijswik (lotto – jumbo) was also up the road and ahead of that group. After taking maximum points over the first climb Pellizotti and Bentacur attacked and joined him before Vandewalle did the same. The 4 riders enjoyed a fairly large lead of about 9 minutes for most of the stage with their lead to the chase group behind fluctuating from between 10 seconds to a minute.
As the riders approached the final climb it was Astana who hit the front of the bunch. With the rain and the majority of the stage behind them, having 9 riders in the front group was a minor miracle. Astana really turned the screws coming up to the base of the final climb and cut the gap to about 6 minutes.
Reichenbach and Intxausti attacked out of the second group to form their own chase group before Steven Kruijswik proved to be the strongest out of the first group. Meanwhile in the peloton it was still all Team Astana.
After Astana had lead the whole way up and starved off an attack from Damiano Cunego, Aru was the man to attack however was chased brilliantly by Porte and Contador. Meanwhile up front it was Intxausti who looked to be suffering until he attacked Reichenbach and stomped off to win the stage.
Mikel Landa then attacked for Astana and forced Sky to do the work with 3 riders in the front group which they did fairly well.
With just over 1 km to go it was Aru to try again before Porte chased him down. Instead of stoping Porte himself went of the attack and tries to ride away. This thinned out the group substantially as only Aru, Contador and Uran along with Cataldo could go with him.
In the end it was Intxausti winning from Landa and Reichenbach meaning there were no bonus seconds available for the General Classification riders as Aru lead them over.
A super stage but no changes to the General Classification. Rigoberto Uran looks to be riding himself into form whilst Porte seems to be the most comfortable of the General Classification riders.
The general classification battle of the 2015 Giro d’Italia heats up as the peloton take on Stage 8 which is 186 km from Fiuggi to a summit finish at Campitello Matese. Join The Roar from 9:30pm (AEST) for live coverage of the race.
Most of the riders will be glad they don’t need to spend more than seven hours in the saddle as we move onto Stage 8, however we have our second summit finish on the category one Campitello Matese.
Yesterday after seven hours in the saddle, in a much reduced bunch sprint it was Diego Ulissi (Lampre) who emerged victorious ahead of Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) and Simon Gerrans (Orica).
Alberto Contador with his shoulder injury looked to be riding well and in fact got better as the stage went on. However when he got to the podium presentation it took an extended period of time to get his pink jersey on and he couldn’t lift his left arm.
Moving onto Stage 8 now, and it should bring about a shake-up in the general classification with a summit finish. Looking at the profile for the stage, it never really flattens out always going either up or down, however there are only two categorised climbs on course.
The first of these categorised climbs comes after 80.7km however the riders will start the climb after just over 50km, making this a 29km climb at steady gradients most of the way, including a downhill section about two thirds of the way up. The average gradient of the climb is only about five per cent and it never ramps up beyond nine per cent.
Following reaching the summit of the first climb for the day the riders will face about a 25km descent that is fast but not technical. Then the riders will continue downhill interspersed with a lot of little climbs that have not reached categorisation before aiming up for the final climb of the day.
The final climb of the day is category one and 13km long. With the length combined with an average gradient of close to seven per cent it will certainly separate the peloton enough to cause a shake-up in the GC. The maximum gradient of the climb never really goes beyond nine per cent.
Interestingly as the riders come into the final kilometre the gradient will drop off towards three per cent, before the last 250 meters following a left hand turn are virtually flat. Still with bonus seconds to be won this will be fought tooth and nail.
With rain expected on the stage this will only make life harder for the riders.
Elia Viviani moved into the sprinters jersey and will be aiming to keep that with two intermediate sprints on course coming after 50 and 148 km respectively.
Coming into a stage like this if you were asked to pick one favourite it would be Alberto Contador (Saxo), however with his shoulder it is going to be really interesting to see how he rides.
Richie Porte (Sky) has been in fantastic form coming into the Giro, whilst Fabio Aru (Astana) could be looking to move into pink however at this early stage of the race they could well all just mark each other, which opens up the road for Rigoberto Uran (Etixx Qucikstep). For mine he will be the most aggressive on this stage as he needs to start winning back time over the others, who can match him in an individual time trial.
A breakaway could also succeed on Stage 8 if it has the right composition, however they will need at least five minutes with 20km to go.
Prediction: I can’t go past Rigoberto Uran to lead home Richie Porte with the stronger breakaway riders dotted in the top 10.
Join us on The Roar from 9:30pm (AEST) for our live coverage of Stage 8 of the 2015 Giro d’Italia in what should be a fantastic stage, and don’t forget to leave your comments if you are following along.