2017 Giro d’Italia: Stage 8 Results

Gorka Izagirre (Movistar Team) took the biggest success in his decade-long professional cycling career, opening his team’s account in Saturday’s 8th stage of the 2017 Giro d’Italia. The stage was a 189km rolling parcours from Molfetta to Peschici – over the hills of the Gargano region in southeastern Italy – that offered no respite to the competitors. After the first hour of racing was covered at a whooping 53.5kph average, the original 16-man break kept close by the bunch despite looking like a winning move, Izagirre involuntarily sought for a moment – never looking to chase the win – to make a first right decision: the descent of the Cat-2 Sant’Angelo, 80km from the end.

The Ormaiztegi-born cyclist did a fast downhill to reach the leading groups, very much torn apart by the huge pace in the beginning of the stage. The strong speeds by QST and KAT in the bunch behind forced Izagirre to respond to nervous accelerations from Valerio Conti (UAD) and Visconti (TBM). The two Italians, together with Gorka, Luis León Sánchez (AST) and Gregor Mühlberger (BOH, dropped later on), formed a decisive split (Izagirre event took a 10″ gap with 6km remaining at the Coppa del Fornaro climb) that would play their cards for victory at the finish in Via Montesanto (1.5km, 5% average).

Barely making it past a crash from Conti, Izagirre chose to launch his winning move from the foot of the climb, taking some beautiful meters that ultimately brought him his sixth win as a pro (3x Clásica de Ordizia; stage win in Luxembourg, 2010; last April’s Klasika Amorebieta), the most resounding in his career. After the escapees, an elite GC group saw Nairo Quintana (7th overall) and Andrey Amador (10th) finishing in perfect position before Sunday’s crucial Blockhaus mountain-top finish (Cat-1, 13.5km, 8,5% avg.). The Giro, however, already looks bright for the Blues after Izagirre’s success. Zorionak! (” Congratulations”, in Basque language)

Gorka Izagirre: “It wasn’t on our day’s plan to enter the break, but we saw a chance into that long descent, we also had to keep riders from dangerous teams at reach, and so we decided to give it a try and carry on later on once we made it it. We saw the opportunity to go for the stage and I’m so glad we could finish it off. When Conti crashed just in front of me I was a bit hesitant, because there was still around one kilometer remaining. 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!

“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. And it’s also a huge boost of morale for the team. It really makes us confident for what’s to come. Nairo is super strong at the moment and the whole team is delivering so far, everyone has seen it during this week. We’ve more than fulfilled the goal we had our minds on before starting the race, which was keeping him out of trouble and in contention until the Blockhaus ascent – now it’s another completely different Giro, and we could see some interesting things already on Sunday.”

Teamwork Keeps Jungels in Maglia Rosa

Bob Jungels will wear the maglia rosa for the fifth straight day, after overcoming a crash and one of the race’s toughest stages. Jungels crashed on a downhill with 30 kilometers to go and hurt his left knee, but despite the bleeding cut, the 24-year-old Luxembourger remounted and returned to the peloton with the help of his teammates.

“The crash was my fault, because I didn’t pay attention in the downhill, touched the back wheel of a teammate and went down,” Jungels said. “Fortunately, it wasn’t bad and at the moment I don’t have too much pain, but we have to wait until tomorrow to see how I will feel. Today’s stage was very complicated and nervous, as everyone seemed to want to be in the breakaway, but we stayed calm and took back time in the final 30 kilometers, following a great ride of my teammates, to whom I want to say a big thank you”, Jungels explained at the press conference.

“This year’s stint in the maglia rosa is different from the one of 2016. I took over the lead much earlier than last year and the gaps are much smaller now, but thanks to the effort of this fantastic team I managed to keep it for five consecutive days. Tomorrow, we have the first important test of the race so far, I’d say even more important than Etna, because everything was tactical there due to the strong winds. I expect a very hard final, as many riders will want to gain time before Tuesday’s time trial”, concluded Jungels ahead of stage 9, which will take the riders to Blockhaus (8.4% over 13.6 km), a climb that was last visited by the Giro d’Italia peloton eight years ago.

2017 Giro d’Italia – Stage 8 Brief Results:

1. Gorka Izagirre (Spain / Movistar) 4:24:59″
2. Giovanni Visconti (Italy / Bahrain) +5″
3. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spain / Astana) +10″
4. Enrico Battaglin (Italy / LottoNL) +12″
5. Michael Woods (Canada / Cannondale)
6. Thibaut Pinot (France / FDJ)
7. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Bahrain)
8. Adam Yates (Britain / Orica)
9. Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands / LottoNL)
10. Bob Jungels (Luxembourg / Quick-Step)

General Classification After Stage 8:

1. Bob Jungels (Luxembourg / Quick-Step) 38:21:18″
2. Geraint Thomas (Britain / Team Sky) +6″
3. Adam Yates (Britain / Orica) +10″
4. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Bahrain)
5. Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy / AG2R)
6. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands / Sunweb)
7. Nairo Quintana (Colombia / Movistar)
8. Bauke Mollema (Netherlands / Trek)
9. Thibaut Pinot (France / FDJ)
10. Andrey Amador (Costa Rica / Movistar)