Sensational Richard Carapaz wins Giro stage eight

In the pouring rain, Movistar's youngest rider overhauled a his breakaway companions to solo to the top ahead of the chasing peloton

The 8th stage saw the second mountain finish in this year´s edition of the Giro d´Italia. The race took the riders from Praia a Mare, yesterday´s finish, up to the mountain of Montevergine di Mercogliano over 209km. It was a hard the in the saddle with many hilly sections before the peloton had to tackle the final climb with an average gradient of 6%. 

Under soaking rain, 'Richie' was still comfortable and near the front of a big group containing all favourites, with Groupama-FDJ and Sky in the lead, which was bringing back all remnants of the day's escape -having reaching the foot of the 16km ascent with a 1'30" deficit-. Always fresh and quickly reacting to all moves at the gentle slopes fo the climb, Carapaz profited from a slight breather by his rivals and some vigilance in the group to launch his attack; overtake Koen Bouwman (TLJ), still in the lead after the break; and reach the line with seven seconds over the fastest riders in the group, to claim his 3rd pro victory in Europe after the Queen stage and GC wins in the recent Vuelta a Asturias.

The pace was high right from the start and after some kilometres of racing seven riders launched an attack and built today´s breakaway with a maximum gap of 5 minutes, while BORA – hansgrohe stayed together in the main bunch. The breakaway of the day was gone for most of the stage. As approaching the final climb, the break had still a gap of two minutes, but with 5km to go the breakaway fell apart.

 The finale was marked by pouring rain and saw many attacks, but it was R. Carapaz (Team Movistar), who made the final move and was able to take the stage win on the Montevergine di Mercogliano climb.

Richard Carapaz said afterwards "I'm so happy, so excited about this win. It's a magnificent one. I can't really believe I've got this. It's been a very tough few weeks of work to reach this Giro in good condition. It had already been great to win in Asturias, since it was my first victory in Europe, yet notching up this really big one here in the Giro is incredible."

The win takes 'Richie' up to eighth overall, 1 m06s behind Simon Yates, still in Maglia Bianca (White Jersey) as the best under-26 competitor in the race. The Ecuadorian will tackle another tough mountain-top finish on Saturday at the Gran Sasso, more than 2,100 meters above sea level, following 225km which will start at Pesco Sannita.

VIDEO: 2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 8 Highlights

2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 8 Top 10

1 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Movistar Team 5:11:35 
2 Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:07 
3 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ   
4 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) LottoNL-Jumbo   
5 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott   
6 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida   
7 Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott   
8 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe   
9 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale   
10 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team

2018 Giro d'Italia GC after Stage 8

1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 31:43:12 
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:16 
3 Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:26 
4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:41 
5 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:43 
6 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:53 
7 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:01:03 
8 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Movistar Team 0:01:06 
9 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:10 
10 George Bennett (NZl) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:01:11