Return of the Breakaway King: De Gendt delivers on Stage 8

Ten years after his historic win on the Stelvio, Thomas De Gendt soared to a second Giro d’Italia stage win with an emphatic victory on the streets of Naples thanks to a little help from his Belgian compatriot and teammate Harm Vanhoucke.

The Lotto Soudal duo were part of a four-man move that extricated itself from a stellar breakaway that featured the likes of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) on the streets of Naples in an absorbing 153km circuit race that had the feel of a mini world championships.

Despite the gap coming down to just 10 seconds as the riders entered the final kilometre, the four leaders held on to contest the win with De Gendt launching himself from teammate Vanhoucke’s wheel to hold off Italy’s Davide Gaburro (Bardiani-CSF) and Spain’s Jorge Arcas (Movistar).

The Belgian breakaway specialist’s emphatic burst to the line ensured that the remaining three riders of the move will have to wait another day for their first ever pro win.

Eritrea’s Girmay took firth place at 15 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Mauro Schmid (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) and the Dutchman Van der Poel, whose early attack at the start of the stage provided the springboard for the day’s 21-man break to form.

Frenchman Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) took ninth place to surge up the overall standings on a day the peloton came home just over three and a half minutes down. Martin rises to fourth place on GC, 1:06 behind Trek-Sagafredo’s Juan Pedro Lopez, who was forced to shut down a late attack by rival Lennard Kamna of Bora-Hansgrohe.

Spaniard Lopez retains his 38-second lead over Germany’s Kamna on the eve of the second major mountain test of the 105th edition of the Giro – a daunting summit showdown on the infamous Blockhaus climb in the Apennines.

More to follow.

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