Carapaz makes history with Giro d'Italia stage win

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Richard Carapaz (Movistar) won stage eight of the Giro d’Italia, attacking late on the summit finish of Montevergine di Mercogliano to make history as the first Ecuadorian to win a Grand Tour stage. Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) beat Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) to second place, seven seconds back.

After a largely quiet day, the action erupted in the stage’s final kilometres, with the breakaway caught late as attackers jumped from the peloton. Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) sparked the winning move, riding away in pursuit of Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo), the last man standing from the break.

Carapaz quickly followed, flying past the Frenchman, before riding the last kilometre alone. Thus far, the Giro has been a week of Grand Tour firsts for the 24-year-old second-year pro. In Israel he became the first Ecuadorian to ride a Grand Tour, two days ago on Etna he was the first to wear a jersey, and today he took the country’s first stage win.

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“I’m very happy. I’ve worked a lot before the Giro. Of course having my first Grand Tour win makes me emotional,” Carapaz said after the stage. “I had good legs so I decided to attack with 2km to go. It was the right moment to go alone because I didn’t have much chance to win the sprint.”

“I’ll take it day-by-day. It’s a long way to go until Rome and I’m here to see what I can do at the Giro,” he added when asked about his chances for the rest of the race.

GC-wise, things stayed largely the same, with Carapaz moving up three places, while Pinot’s bonus seconds means that he takes fourth. The top three of Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) and Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) remains the same.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) moved down to ninth at 1:10 after Carapaz gained 17 seconds including the time bonus, but it could have been worse - he slid out in a wet hairpin on the final climb and had to chase back on with his teammates.

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How it happened

The semi-regular finish destination of Montevergine di Mercogliano hosted the Giro’s second stage on mainland Italy - the second summit finish of the race. Danilo Di Luca and Damiano Cunego have taken victory here before, with the most recent victor being Bart de Clerq back in 2011.

As the race headed north hugging the Tyrrhenian coast, several unclassified bumps featured but the day was all about the final climb. While the false flat started 50km out in Salerno (location of the second intermediate sprint, after Agropoli at 110km), the real test began 17.1km from the line.

That’s the length of Montevergine di Mercogliano, and it’s one for the big ring rather than the flyweight scalatori, averaging a five per cent gradient without much deviation. As a result, the climb hasn’t historically generated big gaps at the finish, with the 2011 stage seeing a 26-man lead group cross the line together.

Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Fix All) sparked the day’s breakaway with his solo effort 20km into the stage. He was soon joined by Davide Villella (Astana), Matteo Monteguti (AG2R La Mondiale), Rodolfo Torres (Androni-Sidermec), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida), Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and two-time Giro stage winner Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates).

Their advantage topped out at six minutes, while Torres and Van der Sande took the two sprints. By the time they left Salerno, the break still enjoyed a five-minute gap with 40km left to race. Back in the peloton Mitchelton-Scott predictably led the way.

A dry day gave way to showers in the final 20km, and the gap to the break slimmed to under a minute as they hit the treeline - and the hairpins - with nine km to race. A gloomy race for Team Sky’s Chris Froome continued as he slid out on a hairpin five kilometres from the line, hitting the deck for the second time in the race.

Mohoric launched the first attack from the breakaway, going it alone with 13.5km to go, but the Slovene was soon caught. His move did result in the shedding of Villella and Torres, however, while Polanc looked under pressure.

The remaining quartet continued on until the final kilometres of the stage, when Bouwman made his push for victory with the peloton rapidly approaching behind. It looked as though his move was more out of hope than expectation, however, as the attacks started just metres behind.

Ultimately, the Dutchman’s efforts proved futile, as the counter-attacking Carapaz flew past as the final kilometre approached. He could fully savour the run-in, riding it as he did on his own. Further back it was Pinot who led the charge for bonus seconds, before Formolo snuck ahead in the sprint for the line.

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