Giro d'Italia: Alex Dowsett solos to victory on stage 8

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Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation) won the second Giro d’Italia stage of his career in a nail-biting finish into Vieste on Saturday. The British rider was part of an original six-man breakaway on stage 8 and attacked several times with his winning move coming with 18.3km to go. He held off a late chase from the remnants of the break to win the stage ahead of Salvatore Puccio (Ineos) and Matt Holmes (Lotto Soudal).

Dowsett’s first stage win in the Giro d’Italia came back in 2013 when he beat Bradley Wiggins in the individual time trial into Saltara and this was just as special for the 32-year-old who is yet to sign a contract for a WorldTour team in 2021. 

The Briton did his chances of a inking new offer a world of good with a ride that displayed both his time trialing skills but also his dogged determination. Although he held a 50 second lead heading onto the final climb his advantage was slashed to just over 20 seconds at the summit but Dowsett rallied to take a well-deserved win.

In the race for the maglia rosa there were no changes, although the stage began without Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) who returned a positive test for COVID-19 after the completion of stage 7. Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) retained his lead in the race, although there was a brief scare for Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) who suffered a mechanical on the only major climb of the day and was forced to use his entire Astana team to regain contact.

Today the main peloton took the pace relatively easy with stage 9 and a key mountain stage to come but there were several crashes in the peloton that ensured that riders couldn’t completely relax with Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale) crashing out and several other riders hitting the deck in separate incidents.

How it unfolded

With the bunch easing back the stage was decided by the break with Simone Ravanelli (Androni), Joey Rosskopf (CCC), Mathias Brandle (Israel Start-Up Nation), Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation) Matthew Holmes (Lotto Soudal) and Salvatore Puccio (Ineos Grenadiers) moving clear with 22km of the stage covered.

The six-man move had plenty of horsepower and it was no surprise to see the move quickly establish a healthy lead. In theory, Sunweb and Bora-Hansgrohe might have been interested in chasing with a course profile that suited by Michael Matthews and Peter Sagan, respectively. However with GC riders in the mix both teams abstained from chasing with only QuickStep taking responsibility as they protected Almeida’s lead.

With 100km to go the six leaders had a substantial lead of ten minutes over the peloton and on the 9.6km ascent of the Monte Sant' Angelo they even extended that gap by a further 25 seconds. There was a hint that the race could come back together when Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) accelerated over the top of the climb, as the peloton crested the climb, and then issued all of his Trek team to the front. The pace remained high when Fuglsang was forced to stop for a mechanical.

Two riders crashed on the following descent and Fuglsang found himself in a large group that was over a minute down on the maglia rosa group with 77km to go but after a frantic chase Nibali’s men relented and the Danish rider was able to regain contact 10km later.

Dowsett makes history

With 50km to go, the leaders still had enough of a buffer to forget about the main field and as they made it onto the finishing circuit it was Dowsett who attacked first, drifting to the back of the group before accelerating with 30km to go. The move was quickly shut down by the rest of the break and when the break reached the only climb of the circuit it was Puccio and Holmes who jumped clear. Rosskopf made contact over the top but Israel Start-Up Nation were on the ropes at that point with Dowsett and Brandle fifth and sixth on the road but they combined well on the flatter section and pulled the break back together.

With 18.6km to go, Brandle attacked but he was quickly brought back. This time the Israel Start-Up Nation decided to attack in quick succession and as soon as Brandle was brought back Dowsett put in his second and most important dig. This time he went clear with Puccio and Holmes backing on the next climb and hesitating for two long.

Dowsett reached the final climb with 50 seconds of a lead and even though Puccio and Holmes were once more the strongest, and they rapidly ate into the deficit, Dowsett managed to crest the summit with 25 seconds spare. Rosskopf once more made contact on the descent but the chasers were powerless to stop Dowestt from taking his second stage win and Israel Start-Up Nation’s first Grand Tour stage in their history.