Giro d'Italia: Victor Lafay wins stage 8 from the break

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Victor Lafay (Cofidis) won stage 8 of the Giro d’Italia on yet another day where the breakaway succeeded. 

The 25-year-old Frenchman was the strongest of nine escapees on the final climb, catching Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) 2.2km from the finish after the Italian had attacked earlier on the climb, and then holding off a late charge from Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo-Kometa), who finished second. 

Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) finished safely in a peloton that had been reduced to 26 riders on the final climb that featured most of the GC contenders, meaning he holds on to the pink jersey. Caleb Ewan abandoned mid-way through the stage.

The only GC names that were missing were Jai Hindley (Team DSM), who lost eleven seconds, and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), who finished thirty seconds adrift after being caught out in a crash just a few kilometres from the finish, while Louis Vervaeke (Alpecin-Fenix) slid from fifth to tenth from also missing the split. 

But the main focus of the day was the breakaway, which formed after a long, competitive battle at the start of the stage.

“It was a very tough day, to make the breakaway was very difficult,” said the victorious Lafay at the finish. “But when it was gone, the peloton let us have seven minutes, so we could recover a little.”

After it was clear that the peloton was happy to let the break succeed, it all came down to the final climb to decide which of the nine would win the stage. 

“The finish was hard, about a ten-minute effort...I knew that [the others in the break] were not climbers. [Nelson] Oliveira was the best one, so I kept an eye on him. But I was confident with my legs, and I attacked with 3km to go. I don’t believe that I’ve just won!”

After making that attack, it wasn’t long before he caught the earlier attacker, Giovanni Carboni, who had looked as though he might hang on.

But Lafay flew past him with no problem and soloed all the way to the top to seal a landmark result in his career, and Cofidis’ first Giro stage win since 2010.

How it unfolded

The undulating terrain and an uphill finish that didn’t look hard enough to make this a fully-fledged GC stage meant this looked likely to be another day of a breakaway to succeed, and indeed there was an almighty battle at the start of the day to get into the day’s break.

Even GC riders got involved in the battle, with Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) at one point being part of a group that got away.

He was brought back, but there were still more scares to come for some GC riders as crosswinds further complicated the exhausting opening. Overall leader Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) was caught out when the peloton split into smaller groups, along with GC riders like Romain Bardet (Ag2r Citroen) and Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) but once again eventually everything came back together. 

At last, about 50km into the stage, an eight-man group succeeded in gaining a substantial gap over the peloton, and was made up of no threats to the GC: Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Kobe Goossens (Lotto Soudal), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R Citroën), Nikias Arndt (DSM), Victor Lafay (Cofidis), Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane), Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo-Kometa) and Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates). 

The peloton was happy with the make-up of the group, and sat up, giving everyone a much-needed great.

Everyone, that is, apart from Victor Campanaerts (Qhubeka Assos), who had set off in pursuit of the leading octet and had to dig deep before eventually joining them after chasing for about 10km. 

Amid all the breathless action, Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) had abandoned the race after being distanced. The Australian had been wearing the maglia ciclamino as leader of the points classification, so Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) became the new leader. 

With the race settled down, the break’s gap got bigger and bigger, reaching over seven minutes by the start of the day’s long centerpiece climb, the category two Bocca Della Selva.

With the peloton taking it easy behind, the nine escapees were able to ride the climb at a steady pace and remained together at the top, where Goossens gained maximum points ahead of Arndt and Gavazzi. 

Similarly, the peloton remained largely together, with only Simon Yates (BikeExchange) and Dan Martin (Israel StartUp Nation) having no problem rejoining after each having mechanical problems. 

Gaviria was the first of the break to attack when he accelerated on the descent of Bocca Della Selva, only to crash moments later. Despite suffering cuts to his right arm and leg, he managed to catch back up to the leading group, albeit with some assistance from the medical car he received treatment from. 

Having reached the bottom of the descent, it was clear that the break would contest for the stage win, prompting some from the group who didn’t fancy their chances on the final climb to go long. Campanaerts and Gougeard each put in a number of attacks prior to that climb, but neither was able to go clear. 

At the start of the climb, Goosens was first to attack, but couldn’t open a gap on what were shallow gradients. 

More attacks followed, and Campanaerts and Carboni succeeded in going clear 8km from the finish, with Gougeard caught in between them and the rest of the break. Gougeard was eventually swallowed back up, but the leading duo held a gap of about 10 seconds.

Carboni then dropped Campanaerts 3km from the finish, using his lighter weight to his advantage on the steeper gradients. 

By now the chasers behind were panicking each starting to attack one another rather than work together. Nonetheless, Lafay had the legs to break clear from the rest, then catch Carboni and leave him for dead 2.2km from the finish.

Just when it looked as though Lafay had made the stage win in the bag, Gavazzi then started to chase him down, also catching and passing Carboni and bringing Lafay to within his sights. 

But Lafay’s advantage remained at around 20 seconds, which was enough for him to take the victory.

Back in the peloton, there were no attacks from any of the GC men, although the likes of Israel Start-Up Nation and Ineos Grenadiers upped the pace on the final climb.

A late crash disrupted Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) and Matteo Fabbro (Bora-Hansgrohe), but they were both able to remount and make it to the finish.

There was no major change on the GC as the favourites pretty much all finished together. But tomorrow's stage, which features a finishing climb with very steep gradients and gravel sectors, will be a whole other matter.