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Giro d'Italia 2018: Stage 8

By SadhbhO'Shea
published

January 1 - May 27, Praia a Mare, Italy, Road - GT

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Good morning one and all and welcome to live coverage of stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia. The riders are signing on and will be rolling out of Praia a Mare, where yesterday's stage finished, in just under 30 minutes. 

With the first week coming to a close, the riders are being sent into the mountains for two consecutive summit finishes. Alasdair Fotheringham has compiled a preview of this weekend's racing and you can read it here.

If you didn't get a chance to watch yesterday's stage or need a reminder, you can find a recap of the day's action in our report here. Sam Bennett broke Elia Viviani's stronghold on the sprint competition and beat the Italian to take Ireland's first win in 31 years at the Giro d'Italia.

With the sprinters in action yesterday, the general classification riders had a bit of a break and there was no change at the top of the overall standings. Simon Yates continues to lead the standings with Tom Dumoulin sitting just behind him in second place. This is likely to look a little different at the end of today's stage. 

Following the duel on Mount Etna earlier in the week, today's finish to Montevergine di Mercogliano is a slightly easier prospect, but it is the chance for the general classification riders to soften up their rivals ahead of tomorrow. With little in the way of climbing ahead of the last ascent, we should be in for a fast day out. The average gradient of the final climb is 6 per cent with a maximum of 10 in the early part of the ascent. 

Simon Yates signing on this morning. Will he still be in pink at the end of the day? In the form that he seems to be in, I don't think that today's summit finish is tough enough to take the maglia rosa from him.

Mitchelton-Scott have two race jerseys in the team today with Esteban Chaves leading the mountains competition after his Mount Etna escapades. With just one climb, he is safe in that for today. 

The riders are approaching kilometre 0 and the racing will be underway any moment now. If you have any predictions as to what might happen today then drop me a line on Twitter on @SadhbhOS and I will post some of your responses here. 

 

The attacks are coming in early doors. A seven-man group has been joined by two more riders and we have a nine-man move trying to get up the road. The gap is small at the moment. 

After that little flurry of action, the group is back together. The peloton was clearly not happy with that particular composition. 

Here was the peloton setting off a short while ago and, as ever, the crowds did not disappoint. The crowds have been huge throughout this opening week of the Giro d'Italia.

Another move is trying its hand at snapping the elastic. It hasn't snapped just yet and they have just 15 seconds on the peloton. The riders up the road are: Francois Bidard (AG2R La Mondiale), Mattia Cattaneo (Androni Giocattoli), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Manuele Boaro (Bahrain-Merida), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Nate Brown (EF Education First-Drapac), Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) and Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin).

As I wrote that, the peloton brought that back and it's gruppo compatto again. Interesting that Viviani is trying to get up the road. I assume that he's interested in getting as many of the intermediate points as he can, while he can. 

189km remaining from 209km

We now have Lotto Fix All's Tosh Van Der Sande on the attack with four more riders chasing behind. The pace has the peloton stung into one long line. 

Van Der Sande has been joined by Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale), Rodolfo Torres (Androni), Davide Villella (Astana), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida, and Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo). They have 40 seconds on the peloton after 30 kilometres of racing. 

VelonLive Data shows us just how fast the riders have been going in the opening part of today's stage with an average of 45kph and a top speed of 77kph. 

We now have Mads Pedersen and Jan Polanc trying to bridge across to the leaders. They are 26 seconds back with the peloton 1:02 behind.

173km remaining from 209km

Wellens and Hansen have been brought back into the peloton, but we still have three groups up the road with our leading six, followed by a group of two and then Senni on his own. 

Before the GC battle comes to a head later, have a listen to our latest podcast as the team assesses the damage after Mount Etna. You can find the podcast here.

Meanwhile, Polanc and Pedersen have joined the six up front to give us a leading group of eight riders. 

The latest gap has the eight leaders 2:34 ahead of the peloton while Senni is 1:34 back and looking like he's got to make a tough decision to keep plugging along or give up. With Bardiani CSF missing from the move, I imagine there is a lot of chatter in his ear telling him to keep going. 

165km remaining from 209km

The advantage of the escapees is coming down now and they've had their lead cut to 1:30. Katusha-Alpecin are leading the charge behind. They were in one of the early moves with Tony Martin and they're clearly not happy with missing out on this eight-man attack. 

There is only one classified climb today but the rider are fast approaching a tricky undulating section of the course with a few unclassified ascents. The gap continues to drop as Katusha puts the hammer down. Just a minute for the eight leaders. 

After 50 kilometres we have some more riders trying to get across to the leading group, including Carthy, Tonelli and Armee. Mads Pedersen appears to be in trouble in the leading group. 

Hearing that the peloton has split into two under the pace. This is a frenetic start to the stage today. 

Mitchelton-Scott DS, Matt White tells Eurosport that he'd be happy to let the breakaway get the glory today, depending on who makes it in. They won't want anyone too far up the classification making it into the move.

The gap is 1:24 for the riders as the peloton continues in two pieces. The second part of it is stuck in the cars as they make their way up an unclassified climb. Katusha has moved off the front and riders are taking comfort breaks so it looks like this might just be the move for the day. 

Sam Bewley and Svein Tuft are now in mission control in the peloton and they have knocked the pace off. Pink jersey Simon Yates moves up and they're enjoying a casual chat. The easing in pace has allowed some of the dropped riders to regain contact with the main peloton. 

The gap to our escapees is growing quickly now and they have more than three minutes on the bunch behind. A quick reminder of who it was that made it into the move: Davide Villella (Astana), Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale), Rodolfo Torres (Androni Giocattoli), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida), Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo), and Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates). Mads Pedersen was in there but he pulled the ejector seat and is back with the peloton now. 

It was Van der Sande that sparked the whole breakaway off with his solo effort. The Lotto rider has been in very good form in this Giro d'Italia and Tim Wellens, who tried to make it over to the move, gave Van der Sande plenty of credit for helping him to win stage 4. He's got a decent punch and if the move were to stick then he could potentially be in with a shout of a strong result, though he faces some stiff competition. 

Koen Bouwman is a good pick for today. The Dutchman had a very good Tour of the Alps in the build-up to the Giro d'Italia and finished third on the final day. His team leader George Bennett picked him out as a rider for the future when speaking to Cyclingnews after the race. 

Jan Polanc is another good shout if the breakaway makes it to the line. He has a good track record at the Giro d'Italia with two stage wins to his name at the Italian Grand Tour.

Davide Villella is also a dab hand in the mountains and he won the mountains classification at last year's Giro d'Italia. This is his first season with the Astana team after joining them over the winter. This is his fourth appearance at the Giro d'Italia and his seventh Grand Tour start. 

This year has already been one of the most successful opening weeks for the home nation with three stage wins from the opening seven stages. 

126km remaining from 209km

It's not just special jerseys in the Mitchelton-Scott team today, Esteban Chaves is wearing some special shoes. He's continuing his assimilation into Australian culture and he's got the Aussie flag on his Sidi shoes.

The leaders have just passed through the feed zone, which will be followed by the first intermediate sprint in Agropli after 110km of racing. 

It's not just the Giro d'Italia going on at the moment, and the Tour of California starts tomorrow. We've got Pat Malach there and he's put together a list of five riders to watch for the American race. See who made the cut, here.

112km remaining from 209km

Polanc is actually the best placed rider in this move at just 8:16 down on the maglia rosa Simon Yates, so it is no wonder that Mitchelton-Scott are keeping a watchful eye on the escape. 

A nice shot of the breakaway earlier in the day. 

The peloton has just tackled a short unclassified climb. They will now descend towards the first intermediate sprint of the day. The points will be mopped up by the breakaway, however. Points classification leader Elia Viviani tried to get into the breakaway earlier today, but he was twice brought back. Nobody in the breakaway is a threat to his lead, though he would have liked to collect a few more points for his haul. 

There is also an intermediate sprint competition, in addition to the points competition. Marco Frapporti is well in the lead of that competition after getting into so many breakaways this week. He will still lead that competition at the end of today with none of his closest rivals in that competition making it into today's breakaway. 

Torres leads the breakaway over the line at the first intermediate sprint of the day. He is teammates with the competition leader Frapporti and that will help his teammate nicely. 

94km remaining from 209km

92km remaining from 209km

Away from the Giro d'Italia, Cofidis confirmed that they had renewed their sponsorship with the French bank of the same name until 2022. They have been together since 1997, making it one of the longest partnerships in the sport. Read the full story here.

The peloton is passing over some suspect road surfaces. Sam Bewley is busy pointing out some of the plentiful potholes around, which can be easy to miss when you're approaching at speed in the peloton. 

The riders are well over halfway through today's 209km stage. After a very undulating start, they're on a long, flat section of road before the riders start climbing again. The classified climb is 17km but the riders will be ascending from about 50 kilometres to go so that's in just 30km. The gap to the escapees stands at 5:37. 

This is what the riders will face in the final 17 kilometres of the stage. 

It is a pretty steady climb with no seriously steep sections. We might see a couple of riders trying to make up a bit of time but the gaps are unlikely to be too big but it should set us up nicely for tomorrow's effort. 

George Bennett was one of the overall contenders that looked particularly strong on the summit finish on Mount Etna. He was hit by a car just a couple of weeks before the Giro d'Italia started but you wouldn't know it now. He spoke to our own Barry Ryan about how things are going for him so far. Read the full story here.

We're in the calm before the storm at the moment and the riders are taking the opportunity to slip back and collect bottles from the team car. 

Giovanni Visconti is one of those dropping back. He's covered in blue tape after a massive accident earlier in the week. He had been back picking up bidons and was on his way back when a team vehicle put the brakes on and he hit the back of the car. Fortunately, he avoided going through the window.

Another rider covered in tape is Chris Froome after his crash ahead of the opening time trial. He lost time on the first day and on the races return to Italy due to a bit of bad positioning. He didn't look fantastic on Etna, but he made it through without losing ground on most of the main contenders. Today is a bit too "easy" for him to make too much of an impact but it will be a chance to get the eye in ahead of tomorrow. 

63km remaining from 209km

Ruben Plaza has some sort of mechanical problem and pulls over to the side of the road. Plaza won the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon last month and could be a dark horse for a stage win if the break is brought back. He is riding for the Israel Cycling Academy this season. 

Svein Tuft now doing a turn on the front of the peloton. Mitchelton-Scott has three riders up there at the moment with Groupama-FDJ sitting right behind them. The French team has been right up there for most of the stage but as yet haven't lent a hand. The gap remains at just over five minutes for the escapees as we fast approach the second intermediate sprint. 

Montaguti stretches out his legs. He's also keen for the team car to come up to him and he exasperatedly puts his hand out when they don't come up right away. He collects a couple of bidons and a gel. The final climb is not too far away. 

Meanwhile, the breakaway goes through the second intermediate sprint point. There was little action at the first but there is a bit more the second time around with Tosh Van der Sande sprinting out of the pack to take the points. 

The peloton rounds a tight bend and a signalman gets a little out of his depth as he steps a little too far out into the road to try and guide the riders around the corner. A few have to go behind him and fortunately all of the riders manage to avoid hitting him. 

The riders will now wave goodbye to the sea views as we move inland. The road also changes its trajectory upwards as we begin this gradual ascent towards the finish line. (That is of course the royal we).

The peloton pulls back a few seconds on the breakaway but it is not coming down fast. Nothing is a sure bet yet but the chances for these escapees are looking a little better as the kilometres tick on. Will the bunch let them take it or will we have someone make a late move to deny the breakaway?

While Simon Yates is leading the Giro d'Italia, his brother Adam is making a comeback at the Tour of California. Six weeks after fracturing his pelvis, he's hoping to contest the general classification at the stage race. Read what he had to say before the race, here.

Wout Poels has a few words with one of the motorbike marshals, who is holding up a red flag as they move some vehicles up the side of the peloton. Poels is obviously not too pleased with something. 

Eurosport reporting that there is heavy rain and thunder at the finish line. It's still quite pleasant out on the course where the riders are but it could change for them very quickly. 

36km remaining from 209km

Simon Yates and Esteban Chaves have worked their way towards the front and Mitchelton-Scott has the full team at the head of the peloton. 17km until the foot of the final climb and they want to be in the right position. 

RAI television reporting that Davide Villella has popped back to the medical car. They say that he has been suffering with stomach problems since last night. He's not doing too badly considering, but it could hamper him if he's feeling squffy in the finale. 

A crash in the bunch and it looks like Tim Wellens has come down. A pair of Movistar riders also came down. Both Movistar riders are on their way but Wellens can't go anywhere as his bike is tangled in one of the Movistar bikes and his team isn't there with a replacement bike. All the riders seem ok. It appears to be mainly mechanical issues. 

Wellens making his way back into the bunch after that incident. He'll be a bit frustrated with that. It seems that there was just a touch of wheels as the peloton made their way through a narrow point on course. A demonstration as to why positioning is key. 

29km remaining from 209km

The action is picking up as Van der Sande puts in a dig in the breakaway. Meanwhile, Tuft peels off the peloton and Team Sky has moved up towards the front. The gap has dropped now to 4:10 for the seven up front. 

24km remaining from 209km

Katusha, Astana, FDJ and EF Education First are all coming up towards the front. They're actually still under dry conditions at the moment, but they want to be in the right place when the rain falls. If a crash does happen, they don't want to be caught behind it. 

A number of riders, including Domenico Pozzovivo, have been caught behind incidents earlier in the race. Pozzovivo was able to get back to the front on stage 5, but others might not be so lucky on a finish like this. 

The peloton now has the rain as the bunch stretches out into single file. Katusha-Alpecin on the front and the gap has dropped to 2:54. Remember, it was Katusha leading the charge at the start of the day when they missed out on the breakaway. 

20km remaining from 209km

Simon Yates taking an opportunity to get a gel into him before the final climb. Katusha-Alpecin continues to lead the pace with Tony Martin. They have Jose Goncalves in the pack as the gap falls to 2:36. 

This pace is putting a few riders into trouble and Sebastian Reichenbach has been distanced. He's a very important rider for Thibaut Pinot and he will want to get back to the bunch pretty sharpish. 

Katusha has moved off and we've got a lot of teams coming up to the front as the peloton bunches up a bit. The rain has eased now where the leaders are but the road are still slick. 

16km remaining from 209km

The peloton is readying themselves too and FDJ and LottoNL-Jumbo have come to the fore while Team Sky are also battling forward. This has taken a massive chunk out of the lead which has dropped to under two minutes. 

FDJ leads the peloton into the front of the climb while with just 1:48 between themselves and the leaders. 

15km remaining from 209km

It is Polanc that eventually pulls Van der Sande back with Montaguti in his wheel. 

Only 600 metres between the peloton and the leaders as Polanc goes very wide into a corner. The roads are very slippery and the riders are taking no chances. 

Van der Sande goes off the front again. It's just an upping in pace rather than an all-out attack. He's got Mohoric in his wheel and Polanc is chasing again. 

13km remaining from 209km

In the breakaway, Mohoric has attacked. He's not the strongest climber in the break and he needs a bit of an advantage. Van der Sande closes it down.

The peloton has vastly reduced with lots of riders slipping into the gruppetto. Around 40 riders left in the main bunch while the seven-man break is still all together. 

11km remaining from 209km

Bouwman has a gap and it is Montaguti that gets up to him with Mohoric next over. Polanc gets over but he looks like he's struggling a bit. Torres and Villella are a little further back while Van der Sande seems that he might be done. 

The gap is just a minute though and these escapees will have to do something soon if they want to keep ahead of the peloton. 

We have more rain as these four riders plug on. The gap is just 1:12 on the maglia rosa with 10km to go. 

Anyone of these four could take the win. They're all pretty decent climbers and it will be about timing the drive for home right. Polanc, of course, is the most experienced in these circumstances but he looked to be struggling a little earlier on. 

8km remaining from 209km

The remaining escapees have started to work together as Villella tries to chase them down. He's reportedly suffering with stomach issues today. 

Van der Sande and Torres are caught by the peloton as the gap keeps coming down. It's just 50 seconds now with seven kilometres to go. 

We finally have a time check on Villella. He is 22 seconds back on the four at the head of the race. He stands a small chance but it's a tough as. 

It looks like Villella has pulled the plug. He slows right up and waits to go back into the peloton. We have just four riders remaining out front. 

It's 45 seconds for the breakaway. The escape could still hold this but one big attack from the bunch could shut it all down very quickly. 

For the first time today, we can see Tom Dumoulin moving up towards the front. He doesn't seem to be enjoying the rain but he looks reasonably comfortable. Mitchelton-Scott is still driving a hard pace. 

5km remaining from 209km

A crash in the peloton and one of the Dimension Data riders is down. It looks like Chris Froome was also involved in that but he's quickly making his way back. 

It seems that it was either Meintjes or O'Connor that was down as there is another Dimension Data rider waiting up to pace him back. 

A replay shows that Froome slipped out on a corner and he took the Dimension Data rider with him. That's his second crash in the first week of the race. 

Froome is back up at the front of the peloton. Meanwhile, Bouwman has attacked the breakaway. 

3km remaining from 209km

Froome talks down the radio and he's got some blood from the accident on his elbow. This has been a very challenging Giro for the Sky rider. David de la Cruz moves to the front to set the pace. 

2km remaining from 209km

The gap continues to drop as Mohoric is caught and Polanc looks likely to be the next to be brought back. Bouwman is doing all he can but he has just 17 seconds on the peloton with Montaguti looming behind. 

It is raining cats and dogs as Bouwman continues alone. Just 14 seconds for the Dutchman with 1.7km to go. 

1km remaining from 209km

It's all kicking off and Ganiez strikes out to bridge to Montaguti and Carapaz has attacked too. 

1km remaining from 209km

Carapz is storming up the climb and he looks like he's got this with 500 to go

That was some attack from Carapaz. 

Behind, there is no reaction from the peloton behind and Carapaz rides to his first ever Grand Tour victory. 

Now, Pinot attacks followed by Formolo.

Pinot is looking for the bonus seconds. Pozzovivo is also responding.

that final kilometre was a grind but Carapaz wins stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia.

Formolo comes over to take the bonus seconds in second place with Pinot in third. 

Froome managed to make it through in that main group, but he looked in trouble on that climb. 

What a finale that was, though, and the torrential rain just added to the atmosphere. This is how it ended after all of that. 

There was no change in the overall standings after that with Yates maintaining his lead over Tom Dumoulin and teammate Esteban Chaves. 

Today's stage was merely the amuse bouche of this weekend's racing. That final climb was a fairly steady offering that didn't really see too much aggression from the overall contenders. It was interesting to see that Pinot was once again hot on the bonus seconds as he closes in on a podium place. 

A few words from our stage winner: "I’m very happy, I have worked a lot before the Giro. Of course having the first Grand Tour win - it’s emotional.

And some thoughts from the maglia rosa: "We wanted to be in front for the climb. We knew because of the rain in the final, the hairpins would be very slippery. We wanted to take them in the front. We rode an even tempo. It was a very hard start, so maybe the breakaway didn’t have good enough legs to stay away.

It is still pouring down with rain out there and there doesn't appear to be any team buses, which is often the case at summit finishes, and the riders are trying to get into fresh and dry clothing before riding down the the team bus. Sometimes, cycling isn't glamorous. 

This was the moment that Richard Carapaz crossed the line and made history by becoming the first rider from Ecuador to win a stage of the Giro d'Italia.

Esteban Chaves maintained his place in the overall classification too as well as the mountains jersey. He had this to say at the end of the stage. 

Speaking of the pink jersey, here is Simon Yates in pink for the third stage running.

If you want to relive any part of today, we have a full report, results and photos from stage 8. You can find that all here.

That is it from our live coverage today. We will have full coverage of tomorrow's mountain stage so make sure you tune in. Our reporters have braved the rain in Italy and we will also have the key reactions from today's stage later this evening. 

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