Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) managed to win the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia after a fiercely contested stage. The man in the pink jersey had his team working all day, only to expertly finish off the race on the final climb towards Prati di Tivo.
After the time trial on Friday, the gaps at the top of the general classification were already significant. For those still hoping that Tadej Pogacar could be tamed in this Giro d'Italia, the outcome of the time trial was somewhat disappointing. Top time trialist Filippo Ganna suffered defeat, while close rivals Daniel Felipe Martínez (BORA-hansgrohe) and Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) were already facing a substantial deficit.
The big question before the eighth stage was: Does Pogacar want to hang onto the pink or not? After the time trial, the Slovenian hinted at someone new wearing the maglia rosa, which did not fall on deaf ears: as soon as the race directors flagged off the riders at 12:45 PM on Saturday, a whole lot of them immediately sprang into action. Christophe Laporte did not, as the Visma | Lease a Bike rider was still feeling the effects of his fall a few days earlier.
Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) was one of the most active guys, as was Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quick-Step. The road tracked up right from the start, triggering a barrage of attacks. However, UAE-Team Emirates had only one mode, and that was to ride full throttle: the breakaway riders were not allowed a significant lead in the first seven kilometers.
After a short descent, the first categorized climb came into play: the Capistrello, which was sixteen kilometers long at nearly six percent. Here the cycle started anew, but even more riders threw themselves into the fray. Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) was moved to the front by several teammates, which again prompted reactions from the men around him.
General classification teams engage early in the stage
Einer Rubio (Movistar), Michael Storer (Tudor), Jan Hirt, Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step) and Juanpe Lopez of Lidl-Trek: they all tried, but UAE-Team Emirates initially did not give too much room. Eventually, Pogacar's men allowed sixteen riders to break free, including Bardet, Storer and Steinhauser, who posed the biggest threats to the pink.
Who else was involved? Pelayo Sanchez, Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Magnus Sheffield, Jhonatan Narváez (INEOS), Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco AlUla), Georg Steinhauser (EF), Alessandro Verre (Arkéa), Simon Geschke (Cofidis), Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani), Henok Mulubhran (Astana) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R) all fought hard to get to the front.
Once at the top of the climb, the peloton rode on a sort of plateau for a long time, where it was do or die for the breakaway group. It appeared to be the latter, which was entirely due to the intentions of one team and one man in particular: UAE-Team Emirates and Pogacar had Mikkel Bjerg, Vegard Stake Laengen and Domen Novak doing strong stints at the front, thereby sealing the fate of the men in front.
At the foot of the Prati di Tivo, there was barely half a minute left for the men at the front, while the door at the back was immediately wide open. White jersey Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) and Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step) had to drop out fairly quickly, as did Tour of the Alps winner Juanpe Lopez from Lidl-Trek. This was the signal for BORA-hansgrohe to push the pace even harder.
Max Schachmann increased the pace for his leader Martínez, which also claimed victims: Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) and Filippo Zana (Jayco AlUla) had to let the group of classification riders go. Job well done for the German, who then left the pacing to UAE-Team Emirates.
They ensured that Bardet, after all his work, was dropped, leaving about fifteen men remaining. Rafal Majka set up for Pogacar, whose attack was still somewhat delayed. In which case, of course, the competition also waits, as the counter-risk is huge when dealing with the Slovenian. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain) did give it a go, purely out of bravery.
Pogacar did indeed reel the Italian back in, following which Thymen Arensman tried his luck. However, Pogacar regulated everything and eventually finished it off very simply in a sprint with the remaining riders.
Results of stage 8 Giro d'Italia 2024
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
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