Giro d'Italia: Gorka Izagirre wins in Peschici

Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) fought his way up the difficult finish in Peschici to win stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia. He came out of a four-man group to take the win ahead of Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana).

Bob Jungels crossed the line only 12 seconds later with the peloton, holding on to his race lead for another day, with six seconds over Geraint Thomas (Sky) and 10 on Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) and the rest.

Izagirre was not part of the day's early breakaway, but saw an opportunity on the descent of the day's category 2 Monte Sant'Angelo when the group was not too far off the front.

"We saw the opportunity to go for the stage and I'm so glad we could finish it off," Izagirre said. "This victory means a lot to me, it's the biggest I've ever achieved. I've spent so many years chasing a Grand Tour stage success, so many times into breakaways, many close calls, and reaching it in such a Giro stage - this is f-ing amazing."

The race saw some major action, although not amongst the GC candidates. A large breakaway eventually went clear, and although they never got a large lead, the group changed size and composition several times. In the end, Izaguirre, Visconti, Sanchez and Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) were alone in the lead.

Conti was looking to take Italy's first win in this year's Giro, but crashed on a turn within the last kilometer and was swallowed up by the peloton.

"When Conti crashed just in front of me I was a bit hesitant, because there was still around one kilometer remaining," Izagirre said. "However, I looked back, saw that there was a split in our group, and I chose to go on full steam until the very end. It was really a long ascent with that action, but I'm just incredibly happy that I got this!"

The only GC rider to show any movement on the stage was Mikel Landa (Sky). The Spaniard jumped from the peloton inside the final 10km but was unable to stay away. The rest stayed tucked safely inside the group.

Luis Leon Sanchez was the most active rider of the day. He was not part of the original breakaway but was able to bridge up before the first climb of the day. He soon was at the head of the group and won both mountain sprints. He continued to race aggressively, continually attacking and pushing the pace. His hard work showed in the end as he weakened on the steep curving final meters, finishing only two seconds ahead of the peloton.

Jungels was happy to retain the pink jersey. "We did a pretty good job today. We showed we had some patience in the team because on the climb our best guys to pull were dropped. Then with Conti in front, there was a little game but in the end, we did really well to wait for our strong horses to come back and then pull the breakaway almost back at the finish."

How it unfolded

Stage 8 started with an 84 km long flat-as-a-pancake stretch, which just begged for a breakaway to form. The problem was that everyone wanted to be in it, and no one wanted anyone else to be in it. So it is no surprise that it took nearly 60km for the break of the day to form.

13 riders struggled to get away but were finally successful: Jan Barta (Bora-Hansgrohe), Laurent Didier (Trek-Segafredo), Kristian Sbaragli (Dimension Data), Maciej Paterski and Branislau Samoilau (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Jasper De Buyst (Lotto Soudal), Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Katusha-Alpecin), Roberto Ferrari (UAE Team Emirates), Mirco Maestri and Vincenzo Albanese (Bardiani-CSF), Iljo Keisse (Quick-Step), Chris Juul-Jensen (Orica-Scott), and Alex Howes (Cannondale-Drapac).

An additional three riders gave chase. Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Lukas Pöstlberger and Gregor Mühlberger (Bora Hansgrohe) caught up with the larger group and the gap quickly grew to some 3 minutes.

The pace was very high and the riders came to the first climb of the day sooner than expected, the category 2 Monte St Angelo, with a long ascent. And finally, some real action started. Sanchez took off and climbed all the way up by himself. Behind him, many riders fell out of the group on the long climb with its many hairpin curves, but equally, riders jumped from the peloton, and at one point the peloton broke into two parts.

Sanchez soloed over the summit and started flying down the descent. Behind him, the chasing group fell apart, and a chasing group of 12 formed with Visconti, Conti and Izagirre coming across to Mühlberger, Pöstlberger, Samoilau, Sbaragli and Didier with Davide Villella (Cannondale - Drapac), Julien Amezqueta (Wilier - Selle Italia), Clement Chevrier (AG2R La Mondiale), and Ivan Rovny (Gazprom - Rusvelo). They joined Sanchez on the descent.

But the maglia rosa group kept falling further and further back. Someone finally woke up and the chase started when the gap had reached over 4 minutes.

The second and last classified climb came at the 143km marker, with Sanchez once again taking the maximum points.

With 34km to go, the gap had dropped to 2:30. Five riders had broken from the lead group: Conti, Sanchez, Izagirre, Mühlberger, and Visconti. Conti, who had moved into the virtual race lead, jumped to get the bonus seconds at the second intermediate sprint. Behind them, the gap had gone back up to about three minutes, and uneasiness was setting in.

The finale promised to be a tricky one, with barely a flat or straight kilometre. The five leaders were about 40 seconds ahead of their nearest chasers, and with 15 km to go, the gap to the field was dropping towards the two-minute mark, dropping Conti out of virtual pink jersey.

Conti was not willing to give up and the group threatened to break up, as the others scurried to catch up. The next to go was Visconti with 10.7km to go and his move was more successful. Mühlberger was no longer able to keep up, as the other three soon caught Visconti, although Sanchez was starting to get into difficulty.

Mikel Landa of Sky was no longer willing to put up with the delays and jumped from the peloton. Only 10 seconds behind race leader Jungels, he was a danger to the overall rankings. The gap was down to just over a minute.

Sanchez was not as weak as he appeared to be, as he was in the next break with Visconti. But again, the other two caught up, and soon Izagirre and Visconti were in the lead. Landa caught up with Pöstlberger, who had earlier been in the break group. The Austrian was not able to stay with him.  Quick-Step was now out of the lead work in the field, as the GC teams came to the fore.

The four leaders again came together before the top of the unranked Coppa del Fornaro at 6.2 kilometres from the line. Landa never had more than 15 seconds or so and soon drifted back to the field.

The descent started with just over 3km to go and a minute for the peloton. But there were still difficulties to be faced, with the uphill finish on Peschici's Via Montesanto. The road kicked up throughout the final 1500 metres, with the gradient stiffening to 12% in the final 400 metres.

The quartet stayed together on the final kilometre, but Conti took one risk to many and crashed on a right-hand curve. He was soon caught by the peloton. Izaguirre proved to be the best climber, pulling away on the steep twists and turns. His lead was narrow but he held on to take the win ahead of Visconti and Sanchez with the peloton sprinting in 12 seconds later.

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