Giro Rosa: Banks wins stage 8 in Maniago

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Elizabeth Banks (Bigla) won stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile in Maniago Friday. Part of a breakaway of ten riders that formed on the second climb of the day with 40km to go, Banks attacked in the final and held off the rest of the group to win solo. Her teammate Leah Thomas made it a 1-2 for Bigla by beating Soraya Paladin (Alé Cipollini) in the sprint for second place.

"I think this won't sink in for quite a few days," said Banks after celebrating her first UCI victory. "I really can't quite believe it. The group wasn't working really well. We had to keep it rolling, and I was fully on the limit, but that’s the moment when you have to go. We were all tired. Leah was just killing herself to cover everything. I'm so excited, I love racing with her and the rest of the team, this is a real team victory."

Maglia rosa Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) finished with the peloton 2:56 minutes later and defended her overall lead.

How it happened

The stage from Vittorio Veneto to Maniago was the longest of the race at 133.3 kilometres and included two climbs, the category two Forcella di Pala Barzana cresting after 62km and the category three climb to Clauzetto inside 40km to go.

There were many attacks in the first part of the stage, but nobody got away for more than a few kilometres. On the Pala Barzana climb, five kilometres at a gradient of almost nine per cent, the GC favourites took charge, and Van Vleuten crested the top solo, followed by her teammate Amanda Spratt, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (CCC-Liv), Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), and Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans).

After the descent, Van Vleuten had a 30-second gap on a group that also included Katie Hall (Boels Dolmans), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb), and Erica Magnaldi (WNT-Rotor), with Ane Santesteban (WNT-Rotor) joining the chase a bit later. After a while, Van Vleuten sat up and waited for the group behind. The next group was over a minute behind at this point. But with nobody prepared to drive the pace in front, more riders came back on the slightly downhill stretch before the Clauzetto climb to form a peloton of about 50 riders.

11 riders attacked on the 5.3km, six-percent climb, but Elena Pirrone (Valcar Cylance) lost contact with the group again. This left a breakaway of ten riders including Bigla duo Banks and Thomas, Paladin, Pauliena Rooijakkers (CCC-Liv), Shara Gillow (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Malgorzata Jasinska (Movistar Team), Sofie De Vuyst (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo), Alice Maria Arzuffi (Valcar Cylance), and Kathrin Hammes (WNT-Rotor).

The break crested the climb 51 seconds ahead of the peloton and extended their lead to 1:31 minutes at the 20-kilometre mark. Roughly 14km from the finish, Banks made a first move for the stage win but was quickly caught again.

Jasinska and Thomas also unsuccessfully tried to get away, then Banks put in a counterattack with 11.5km to go. The Briton was 21 seconds ahead of her erstwhile companions at the ten-kilometre mark. With Thomas covering all attacks in the chase group, including several attempts by Rooijakkers, Banks defended her advantage on the run-in to Maniago to take the first UCI victory of her career. Thomas won the sprint for second place 30 seconds later to complete an excellent day for the Bigla team.

The peloton rolled in 2:56 minutes behind Banks, meaning that Paladin moved up to seventh place overall ahead of the final mountain stage on Saturday, finishing at Malga Montasio at an altitude of 1,546 metres.

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