Giro d'Italia: Intxausti wins stage 8 summit finish at Campitello Matese

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Spain enjoyed a great day all round on the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia as Movistar's Beñat Intxausti took a fine solo win at the summit of Campitello Matese, while compatriot Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) answered the doubts about the state of his damaged shoulder by managing to retain his grip on the maglia rosa.

Indeed, Contador not only showed that he was well capable of responding to the attacks of Astana's Fabio Aru and Sky's Richie Porte despite the subluxation of his left shoulder he suffered when he crashed two days ago, but even managed to double his narrow lead over Aru when he took two bonus seconds at the first intermediate sprint.

Intxausti described himself as showing "real sangfroid" as claimed the second Giro stage win of his career. Part of a group that spent more than half the stage chasing a minute or so behind breakaway riders Steven Kruiswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Carlos Betancur (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Kristof Vandewalle (Trek Factory Racing), Intxausti joined up with IAM Cycling's Sébastien Reichenbach on the final climb in chasing down Kruiswijk, the strongest of the leading trio.

With 4km remaining, Reichenbach and Intxausti rode past the fading Kruiswijk. The Swiss IAM rider had looked the stronger of the pair, setting a fierce pace as Intxausti appeared to be struggling to stay on his wheel. But, three kilometres from the finish, the Spaniard came to life, sprinting away from young Reichenbach and never looking likely to be caught even after the maglia rosa group upped its pace a few hundred metres down the road behind him.

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"I was really cold-blooded today in my tactics," he explained. "I knew that the group in front would be incredibly strong, especially Kruiswijk, but we kept pulling and towards the finish we managed to get on terms with him, and then I made my move.

"I was aware that there would be attacks from behind and that Astana were setting a fast pace. I was getting time gaps all the time and when the gap dropped to a minute and a half I knew I had to go. I kept going at a good pace and even though it felt like an age to me I managed to hang on. After this I'll keep looking for stage wins, which was always the plan for the race. I've got no aims for the GC after having a bad day in the heat and losing nine minutes. There are plenty of mountains left for other opportunities, though, and perhaps even a shot at the mountains jersey."

Having set the pace from almost 30km out, it was very clear Astana were intending to attack towards the top part of the climb to Campitello Matese. After teammates Diego Rosa, Tanel Kangert and Paolo Tiralongo had slimmed down the maglia rosa group, Astana leader Aru attacked just inside the 5km banner.

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Initially, the only man able to respond was his teammate Mikel Landa. But Contador, Porte and Rigoberto Urán did scramble back up to the Astana duo, only to see Landa fire away on his own in pursuit of the stage win. That turned out to be a quest in vain, as was Aru's attempt to wrest the pink jersey from Contador's shoulders.

Sky's Leopold König took up the pacemaking until 2004 Giro winner Damiano Cunego rolled back the years with an attack inside the final 2km. 'The Little Prince's moment was fleeting, however, as Aru made another move, although the Sardinian couldn't open up a significant gap.

Porte was quickly on his wheel, with Contador and a resurgent Rigoberto Urán (Etixx-QuickStep) soon in touch as well. Porte countered with an attack of his own, then went hard again. All the while, Contador hung in, defending his lead doggedly as he had said he would.

"I'm really happy with the way it's gone today, just as I was yesterday,” said Contador. "They've been very tough days and today's stage was incredibly hard until the break went. At the end, Astana made it difficult for us, and then so did Aru and Richie. It was obvious that Aru was going to attack, he's come here to win the race just as Richie has. They tried to attack me, but despite the fall I've been able to respond. It was good to save the day and now I've got to think about resting."

How it unfolded

Gianfranco Zilioli (Androni), Branislau Samoilau (CCC), Roger Kluge (IAM), Louis Vervaeke (Lotto-Soudal), Rubén Fernández (Movistar), Eduard Grosu (Nippo Fantini), and Elia Favilli (SouthEast), soon to be joined by a clearly eager Danielson. But it wasn't going to be their day.

Behind them, the peloton split, and race leader Contador found himself in the second group. That encouraged the front half of the peloton to press on hard, engulfing the nine breakaway riders as they did so.

The gap between the two groups swelled to a minute, before closing down, enabling maglia rosa Contador and his teammates to work their way up to the very front of affairs. In the midst of that action, Contador picked up two bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint, thereby doubling his lead over Aru to four seconds.

As the groups merged, Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) jumped away, and the Dutchman quickly gained a significant lead. Ten riders went off in pursuit of Kruiswijk, as the pace finally began to settle down in the peloton, where Tinkoff-Saxo took control.

A lack of collaboration among the group chasing Kruiswijk led to Franco Pellizotti (Androni) and Betancur clipping away on their own. The pair quickly went across the gap to the Dutchman, and the trio became a quartet when Vandewalle joined them.

With four strong riders working together at the front, their lead over the peloton grew to more than nine minutes. Even the loss of Pellizotti, who fell back to the group chasing around 40 seconds to a minute behind, didn't slow their impetus much.

The leading trio's lead was still above seven minutes with 29km to race, when Astana suddenly moved en masse to the front of the peloton. Diego Rosa initially set the pace, which quickly resulted in a minute being trimmed from the lead held by Kruiswijk, Vandewalle and Betancur, who had managed to push their advantage out over the Pellizotti group behind to 1-23 going onto the first-category 16km climb to Campitello Matese.

With 12km to race, the leading trio reached the first significant ramps on the final climb. By now their lead had tumbled to less than four minutes, and this was the cue for Betancur to accelerate. For a few moments the Colombian looked set to go solo, but Kruiswijk closed the gap and then countered with an attack of his own.

The Dutchman looked impressive for a few kilometres, but the pain became increasingly evident as Intxausti and Reichenbach closed in. With 6km left, this pair were a minute in arrears, with the peloton another two minutes further back. Another kilometre further on, and Intxausti and the powerful Reichenbach were on him.

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