Giro d'Italia: Diego Ulissi wins stage 8

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Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) took victory on the first major mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia, as a small group of favourites swallowed up the lone leader within sight of the finish line. Robert Kiserlovski (Trek Factory Racing) took second and Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) third.

"I really didn't expect the win," Ulissi said. "Of course, it was a difficult race today, too difficult, but I'm really, really happy."

Pierre Rolland (Europcar) held a slim advantage as he entered the final 500 metres of the stage, but the Frenchman's hopes were dashed by an attacking Daniel Moreno (Katusha). Kiserlovski then dug in, passing Moreno, and dragged Ulissi with him. Ulissi left it until about 50 metres to go before launching his bid for the line and taking his second stage victory of the race.

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) finished in fourth place with Cadel Evans (BMC) right behind him. Evans moved in to the race lead, as former pink jersey Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) cracked on the first difficult mountain stage, as expected. Evans now has 57 seconds on Rigoberto Urán (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), with Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) at 1:10.

"You have hopes of what you can do in the Giro, it's been a difficult Giro," Evans said. "It was a hard stage an all the contenders were there."

Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) had led the race on the final climbs, and looked to have a good chance before cracking with less than 2 km to go. Rolland jumped from the field to finally join him, but he too couldn't hold up. Arredondo at least had the satisfaction of receiving the King of the Mountains jersey.

Pink jersey Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) was dropped on the day's first climb, but he had never expected to be up in the mix on this stage. The day's biggest loser in the GC race was Michele Scarponi (Astana), who fell back on the penultimate climb and saw his hopes of a top placing fade to nothing.

A Sunny Start

Happily for everyone, there was sunshine at the start of the day. Stage 8 was one of three stages dedicated to the memory of Marco Pantani, who died ten years ago. The day's first climb, the Cippo di Carpegna, was one of his training runs. There was only one DNS today, Cameron Meyer of Orica-GreenEdge, who is suffering from a viral infection.

Everyone wanted to be in the day's break group, and after many attempts, the group finally formed after about 30 kilometres. Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing), Marco Bandiera (Androni Giocattoli), Julien Bérard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre-Merida), Mauro Finetto (Neri Sottoli), Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani CSF), Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar), Carlos Quintero (Colombia) and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) were the lucky ones who, after 40 km, built up a gap of 8:30. The indefatigable Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) gave chase, but eventually fell back into the field.

BMC led much of the early part of the chase but gave way to Movistar, which was desperate to turn its Giro around. Other teams also took their turns and the gap slowly dropped.

Boasson Hagen took the maximum points at the intermediate sprint, in celebration not only of the Norwegian national holiday but also his 27th birthday. At around the same time, Francesco Chicchi fell over the barrier on the roadside and tumbled into the neighbouring field. He appeared shaken, but rode on.

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The first two-thirds of the stage were across rolling terrain, before the first major challenge of this year's Giro made its appearance. The first category Cippo di Carpegna runs six kilometres up with an average gradient of 9.9%. The steepest part was 14%, with the final half of the climb averaging around 10%.

The lead group took a gap of just under six minutes with them as they started up the climb, with Orica-GreenEdge making its first appearance of the day at the head of the chasing field. The gap started coming down dramatically as the road went up.

Going Up

Pirazzi moved to the head of the break group and picked up the speed, soon dropping the weaker climbers. In fact, the group soon consisted of only Pirazzi, Arredondo and Quemeneur. Only some four minutes behind them, pink jersey Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) starting sliding away on the steep climb, barely hanging on to the tail end of the group before being definitely dropped, with a rueful grin.

Movistar and BMC pulled the field up the climb, riding for captains and potential Giro winners Nairo Quintana and Cadel Evans, who had moved into the virtual leader's jersey. The hard climb shredded the field, with AG2R taking over the lead work.

With 37.6km to go, Arredondo jumped. Pirazzi, who had done most of the lead work, struggled to chase, but Quemeneur was dropped. However, the Colombian was strong and pulled away, with the favourites' group not quite one and a half minutes down. Arredondo was first over the top, about 36 seconds ahead of Pirazzi. The rest of the former lead group dribble over the line, before a greatly reduced group came in 1:57 later.

They then face a difficult and technical descent, and once at the bottom, had to go up again. The category 2 Villagio del Lago had a maximum gradient of 11%, but it was only a bump on the way up to the finish line atop the Montecopiolo, with gradients of 11% and 13%.

Rolland attacked out of the group on the descent, quickly gaining some 20 seconds on the field. Steve Morabito (BMC) and Evans were the next to give it a try, moving up to the head of the bunch. Rolland caught up with teammate Quemeneur, getting some help and continuing to move on up towards the leader.

Arredondo took a lead of 1:10 over Rolland and 2:40 over the favourites' group as he started up the next climb. That group had grown larger on the descent. But by that point they no longer cared about the leader, who had come into the stage nearly 20 minutes down. The top favourites for the overall title were all together, with only Scarponi getting dropped and being forced to scramble back.

For all of Rolland's efforts, his gap to Arredondo stayed around 1:15 to 1:20. Further back – much further back – pink jersey Matthews was 15 minutes down with 12 km to go.

Arredondo soloed over the next climb, ensuring himself the KOM jersey at the end of the day, and took a one minute lead over Rolland as he started off on the final 10 km. The final climb was made more difficult by the constantly changing gradient, making it difficult for the riders to find their rhythm.

Arredondo made it within 2 km of the finish before cracking, and Rolland continued on alone, but with the field not 30 seconds back. BMC was driving hard, while the Frenchman was having a hard time of it. Arredondo was quickly swept up and they set out for Rolland. The Frenchman by then had nothing left, and was caught with only 350 meters to go. Daniel Moreno (Katusha) jumped, and was subsequently caught by Kiserlovksi, with Ulissi following. The Italian then moved up to take his second win of the 2014 Giro.

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