Giro d'Italia 2024 Stage 8

May 11, 2024 The race started straight uphill on a stage that looked promising for a break to survive to the finish. Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost and Ewen Costiou of Arkéa-B&B Hotels were the only ones to get away on the on first climb but they were joined by Martin Marcellusi of Bardiani–CSF-Faizanè on the descent. The bunch hit the 15KM climb of the Forca Capistrello and rider after rider attacked out of the peloton to make the break. More than 30 riders got out ahead as the peloton was being shredded due to the pace. 14 riders were clear with 4KM still to climb but they were split in two groups. Romain Bardet of DSM-Firmenich, Simon Geschke of Cofidis and Steinhauser led by 30 seconds over the chase group who were an additional 30 seconds up on the peloton. Valentin Paret-Peintre of Decathlon AG2R made it to the front from the chase group on the climb while Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quickstep, Jhonatan Narváez and Magnus Sheffield of Ineos, and Alessandro Verre of Arkéa-B&B Hotels made it on the descent. The new group of 8 had 2 minutes on the peloton at 107KM to go. Henok Mulubrhan of Astana, Nairo Quintana and Pelayo Sánchez of Movistar, Alessandro De Marchi of Jayco AlUla, Michael Storer of Tudor Pro Cycling, and Marcellusi made it back to the front at 98KM to re-make the original 14 man group. Cohesion in the break fell apart as UAE kept them close at no more than 2 minutes. UAE continued their pace and had the front at just 30 seconds with 15KM to go up the Prati Di Tivo. Valentin Paret-Peintre was last of the break to be caught, holding 20 seconds with 6KM to go but was caught 2 KM later. Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain-Victorious was first to attack out of the favorites group with 1.8KM to go. UAE pulled hard all day and Tadej Pogačar was not going let anyone get away. He covered three or four attacks to make sure it was going to come down to a sprint among GC riders. Dani Martinez of Bora-Hansgrohe started the sprint first at 200M but when Pogačar went, he immediately got space, enough to hold on for the win by a few bike lengths. Martinez came in next with Ben O'Connor of Decathlon AG2R in third on the same time. Michael Storer may have done the ride of the day, staying with the GC group to finish 9th after having been in the main break of the day.