Jhonathan Narváez won a wild eighth stage of the Giro d’Italia on Saturday, attacking and riding the final 10km alone.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider attacked Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), the only other remaining breakaway rider, on the brutal closing slopes to the finish in Fermo, crossing the line 32 seconds ahead of the Norwegian champion.
Mikkel Bjerg, who had been in the day’s three-man breakaway with team mate, did much of the work setting up the victory, but finished well down. Instead Leknnessund’s team mate Martin Tjøtta took third place, 42 seconds down.
Having been dropped by the Ecuadorian, Leknessund refused the give up, bringing Narváez back on a short descent. However, Narváez increased his advantage on the 24% gradients inside the final 3km, before riding alone to the line on even more brutal slopes.
The victory was Narváez’s second of this year’s Giro and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team’s third, a remarkable feat considering they have been down to only five riders after the mass crash on stage 2.
“It was a nice stage for me,” Narváez said after the race. “I think we played really good with my team mate, I think he was the man of the day, Mikkel Bjerg he is always working for the team.
How it happened
After Friday’s punishing mountain top finish at Blockhaus reshaped the general classification, stage 8 presented a stage backloaded with short punchy climbs, and on the face of it at least, a day for a breakaway victory.
The 156km stage began in Chieti, dropping down to the Adriatic coast just north of Pescara, heading north, into a strong headwind, before turning inland and a final 59km which contained almost 1,400m on climbing. This started with two longer climbs and concluded with three muri, short, punchy, very steep climbs, including the ascent to the finish in Fermo.
The attacks began from the gun, a number of groups getting away, but after 10km only two men remained up the road, Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana) and Filippo Ganna (Netcompany-Ineos) leading by just over 20 seconds. The fight for the break was far from over though, and while their lead extended to more than 30 seconds the counter-attacking continued, with plenty of teams keen to place a rider in the group.
With 30km done and the average speed still above 50kph, Bettiol and Ganna’s advantage was still only 35 seconds as the battle behind continued, no one able to make progress into the wind. With 50km done in the first 58 minutes, the leading duo were understandably tiring, their advantage down to 15 seconds and they were caught soon afterwards.
The games continued, with move after move getting a gap then being closed down until finally, with 78km to go and halfway through the stage, a group of eight, which had briefly led the stage, was caught and Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who had been in that group, countered, taking team mate Jhonathan Naváez with him. Simultaneously, behind them gaps opened up in the bunch causing a huge split in the peloton, disrupting the chase.
Pre-race favourite Jonas Vingegaard was caught behind that split, and while his Visma-Lease a Bike team worked to close the deficit, the leading duo were joined by Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), and they began to build a lead. By the time the peloton re-formed the leading trio leading had a 48 second advantage, holding off attempts to close them down.
When the leaders turned off the coast road to start the first of the classified climbs, Montefiore dell’Aso, with 59km to go, the peloton were well over a minute behind, while a group of 20 were in the gap. Though that group was almost caught by the the bunch, they persisted, with some from the peloton jumping across to make a chase group of 30 riders, of those Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana) was the best placed on GC, 5.23 behind the maglia rosa.
At the top of the 9km climb, Narváez, Bjerg and Leknessund had maintained their lead on the chasing group who trailed by 55 seconds, the peloton at 1.48. That gap only increased on the descent and they began the Monterubbiano climb with their advantage at 51 seconds on Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step) who had escaped on the descent.
Garofoli was soon caught and from the splintering chase Javier Romo (Movistar) emerged, though he too was unable to get within 50 seconds of the leaders and was still 50 seconds behind the leaders as they began the unclassified climb towards the finish town of Fermo, from where they would ride a loop down to the coast and back up again.
After doing much of the work in the leading group, Bjerg took the bonus seconds at the Red Bull kilometre, immediately before the descent to the coast, with 24km to go, at which time Romo remained 50 seconds behind. When Narváez, Bjerg and Leknessund arrived at the coast with only 14km remaining, Romo’s deficit was out to 1.29 and it seemed as though the leading trio would take the the win after all.
With 10km to go as the climb back to Fermo began, Bjerg made the smallest of attacks, and, the moment he was dropped, Narváez made his first move. Though he failed to drop Leknessund, another upping of the pace saw to the Norwegian, and Narváez ride to victory.
RESULTS
GIRO D’ITALIA, STAGE 8, CHIETI > FERMO (156KM)
1. Jhonathan Naváez (Ecu) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 3:27:26
2. Andreas Leknessund (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, a +32s
3. Martin Tjøtta (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +42s
4. Thomas Silva (Uru) XDS Astana, +44s
5. Lorenzo Milesi (Ita) Movistar, at s.t.
6. Christian Scaroni (Ita) XDS Astana, +48s
7. Corbin Strong (NZL) NSN Cycling, +55s
8. Juan Pedro López (Esp) Movistar, at s.t.
9. Wout Poels (Ned) Unibet-Rose Rockets, +58s
10. Markel Beloki (Esp) EF Education-EasyPost, +1:00
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 8
1. Afonso Eulálio (Pro) Bahrain Victorious, in 34:28:42
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +3:15
3. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon CMA CGM, +3:34
4. Christian Scaroni (Ita) XDS Astana, +4:18
5. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, at 4:23
6. Giulio Pelizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, at 4:28
7. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Jayco AlUla, at 4:32
8. Mathys Rondel (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling, at 4:56
9. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Netcompany-Ineos, at 5:07
10. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling, at 5:11
