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Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-Quickstep) has taken out both Stage 8, and the overall lead of the Giro d’Italia with a brilliant attack on the final climb after spending the day in the breakaway.
It was a fantastic performance from Brambilla who used his superior climbing skills to move away on the climb, and then maintained his gap all the way to the line.
After a fast start to the stage where the peloton split into four groups early on, 13 riders would form the breakaway of the day, and never really looked like being caught after working extremely hard for their advantage.
The riders who made the move were:
Blel Kadri, Matteo Montaguti (Both AG2R), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Moreno Moser (Cannondale), Jaco Venter (Dimension Data), Gianluca Brambilla, Matteo Trentin (Both Etixx-Quickstep), Sean De Bie (Lotto-Soudal), Jose Joaquin Rojas, Jasha Sutterlin (Both Movistar), Giacomo Berlato (Nippo Vini Fantini), Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) and Alexey Tcatevitch (Katusha)
The peloton, for much of the day were led by Giant-Alpecin but they received little support and the breakaway had a gap of over five minutes with just 45 kilometres of the stage remaining.
Heading into the final climb it was Valverde who launched out of the peloton, shaking out the General Classification contenders to just an eight-rider group, while the attacks at the front saw Brambilla go to the front and Montaguti sitting in second.
Valverde continued to work on the front of the General Classification contenders group and pink jersey wearer Tom Dumoulin was not only dropped, but smashed as he lost over a minute to fall out of the top 10 by the day’s end.
The staus quo remained almost all the way to the finish line with Brambilla holding almost two minutes to the main group, and eventually crossing 1:40 ahead, taking pink.
Vincenzo Nibali and Esteban Chavez both looked very comfortable climbing and descending, being able to respond to all of Valverde’s moves. Everyone else had to scramble at different points, but those two were able to follow easily.
Stage 8 of the Giro though, belongs to Gianluca Brambilla.
Top 5
1. Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-Quickstep) @ 4:14:05
2. Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r La Mondiale) + 1:06
3. Moreno Moser (Cannondale) + 1:27
4. Jaco Venter (Dimension Data) + 1:28
5. Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) + 1:33
Top 5, General Classification
1. Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx Quickstep) @ 33:39:14
2. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) + 0:23
3. Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto NLJumbo) + 0:33
4. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) + 0:36
5. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) + 0:45
Typical Giro d’Italia is the best way to describe Stage 8. It looks easy until the final 25 kilometres, where the sprinters will be wiped off the road, and every climber will go onto the defensive. Join The Roar for live coverage from 10:30pm (AEST).
The first 160 kilometres of the stage are about as easy as they can get. The only difficulty throughout is a Category 3 climb to Scheggia, which comes after 120 kilometres and the day’s two intermediate sprints, which come in Umbertide and Indicatore after 63.5 and 144.5 kilometres respectively.
The climb near the end of the stage to the Alpe di Poti comes after the riders have already gone through the finishing town of Arezzo for the first time. While the climb in the race book is noted as 8.6 kilometres at an average gradient of 6.5 per cent this doesn’t account for a couple of sections that are nearly flat.
The maximum gradient of 14 per cent is reached just before the halfway mark of the climb, and there is no question we will see attacks here from riders who have already lost big time on the General Classification.
It is also about here that it changes from road to the famous gravel roads of Italy. The final 6 kilometres of the climb are all on these gravel roads, and it will add a level of difficulty for everyone involved. Of course, it was Alberto Contador who almost lost the race last year on a gravel climb.
Interestingly, there is another kick up for the finish after the descent, which in itself doesn’t go straight down. With around 1.5 kilometres to go the road goes back up to 11 per cent briefly before saying uphill at an average of 5 per cent all the way to the finish line.
Quite obviously, the sprinters are not going to be around at the finish line today, and it is a stage perfectly suited to Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). However, after Tuesday Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) is quite obviously in some good form.
Those who enjoy their descending, with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) coming to mind, will more than likely look to take time, while both Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and Esteban Chavez (Orica GreenEDGE) should ride aggressively.
The biggest positive for Nibali is the one-two attack he can use with Jakob Fuglsang who is in great form.
With a chance of rain and gravel roads, this is going to be one hell of a stage.
Prediction
Dumoulin should be able to keep his hold on the pink jersey, but I expect Valverde or Ulissi to win it from a small sprint. Watch out for Nibali trying to take time on the descent.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of Stage 8 at the 2016 Giro d’Italia from 10:30pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.