Giro d'Italia: Brambilla wins stage 8 in Arezzo

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Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep) claimed his first ever Grand Tour stage win with a solo attack to Arezzo. Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) followed him home over a minute back with Moreno Moser (Cannondale) rounding out the podium and ensured Italy locked out the top spots.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) led home a group of favourites that included Mikel Landa (Team Sky) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). Race leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alepcin) had a tough day and was dropped on the main climb of the Alpe di Poti.

Dumoulin finished more than three minutes back on Brambilla, handing the young Italian the maglia rosa. Brambilla now leads Ilnur Zakrin by 23 seconds.

"I can't believe what I've done," Brambilla said. "Thanks to Matteo Trentin, we did an amazing job all day. It was a hard stage in the final. He pulled until the last climb then it was my turn. I'm really happy - this victory is for my girlfriend Christina, and my little girl who was born 20 days ago.

“My idea at the beginning of the Giro was this stage, and I did it. I can't believe I have the pink jersey.”

Despite being less than two minutes down on the general classification, Brambilla made it away as part of a 13-man group right at the start of the day. Importantly for the 28-year-old, Matteo Trentin was also part of the breakaway and put in a lot of work on the front to keep the peloton at bay. Brambilla made his move in the main climb of the Alpe di Poti, following an earlier move from Montaguti. The baby-faced climber, who finished third at Strade Bianche earlier this season, quickly caught and passed the AG2R La Mondiale on the dirt roads that covered much of the ascent.

Brambilla’s gap was never too big over Montaguti, hovering at around 30 seconds for most of the run into the finish. At one point on the descent, it looked like Montaguti might be able to close the gap to Brambilla when he had brought it down to just 19 seconds but his hopes faded away once they had reached the flat. Brambilla was able to push out his lead to just over a minute by the time he hit the line in Arezzo.

More on this story...

• Giro d'Italia stage 8: Quotes from the finish line
• Giro d'Italia: Stage 8 video highlights

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How it happened

There was a bit of anticipation in the air at the start of stage 8, as the chances of a break making it stick looked pretty high with a lumpy ride to Arezzo. The riders rolled out of Foligno just after lunch and they wasted no time to really get going. It was a fast and furious start and it wasn’t until the bunch had passed through Assisi that a group managed to make a significant margin.

The 13-man move that included the eventual podium finishers, with Trentin, Alessandro de Marchi (BMC Racing), Blel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale), Jaco Venter (Dimension Data), Sean De Bie (Lotto-Soudal), Jose Joaquin Rojas and Jasha Sutterlin (Movistar), Giacomo Berlato (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) and Alexey Tsatevitch (Katusha).

It took some time for the riders to establish a good gap and with the presence of Brambilla their appeared to be a bit of panic from the peloton behind. The main bunch split into three – not including the breakaway – and perhaps showed the first signs that Dumoulin was having a jour sans after he missed the first group. The Giant-Alpecin rider could breathe a sigh of relief when the break was finally allowed to go and it all came together behind. At the halfway point, the gap had gone to four minutes but it would grow a further minute as they approached the second climb of the day.

It was then that the other general classification teams, including Movistar, LottoNL-Jumbo and Astana lent a hand to Giant-Alpecin in the chase. The impact was immediate and the gap began to tumble, sparking a reaction from the breakaway. AG2R La Mondiale made the initial move and split up the 13-man group but it had come together by the time they reached the foot of the Alpe di Poti.

The status quo wouldn’t stay for long and Kadri and Trentin were among the first of the break to lose touch. Up front and Montaguti went aggressive, taking a flyer off the front and distancing his companions. De Marchi was the first to react but both would be quickly superseded by a strong looking Brambilla. Once he’d gone, there was nothing that his chasers could do to catch him.

As Brambilla left his companions behind, the fight in the overall classification was taking hold. Valverde said afterwards that the team’s plan was to drop Dumoulin and that is just what they did. The Spanish champion launched an attack almost as soon as they hit the dirt road section of the climb, putting the maglia rosa into trouble immediately. In fact, it was only Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) that could follow him initially.

Riders, including Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale), had dug in but managed to regain contact with Valverde, despite many more attacks from the Movistar rider. There were some worrying moments for Sky when it appeared that Mikel Landa had been dropped out of contention. However, he was one of the final riders to make it back to the Valverde group, which would finish 1:41 down on Brambilla.

The same couldn’t be said for Dumoulin, who continued to drop further and further back on the climb. When he did eventually cross the finish line, Dumoulin would drop right out of the top 10 in the overall classification. All is not over for the Dutchman with the time trial on Sunday a chance to climb back up the GC.

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