De Gendt sprints to Giro stage victory in Naples
Thomas De Gendt claimed a fifth career grand tour stage win when he prevailed in the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia at the end of a breakaway
Today's eighth stage in Naples was far from easy. The peloton decided to let a big breakaway go early.
After a demanding day yesterday, a short but still tricky stage was on the menu today. With many small climbs the terrain went up and down all day on the 153km around Naples.
Ahead of tomorrow's challenging stage, with its mountain finish atop the Blockhaus, it was all about saving energy for many teams as well as bringing their GC riders to the finish without losing any time. Soon after the start, a large breakaway group broke free, working well together during the day and were able to keep the field at a distance until the end.
The 35-year-old Belgian won a four-man sprint at the end of the 153-km ride in and around Naples to add to his 2012 Giro, 2017 Spanish Vuelta and 2016 and 2019 Tour de France stage laurels.
Davide Gabburo of Italy was second, and Spain's Jorge Arcas came home third, with Harm Vanhoucke finishing fourth after pulling for his team-mate and compatriot De Gendt in the finale.
Spaniard Juanpe Lopez retained the overall leader's "maglia rosa" pink jersey after controlling Lennard Kaemna's attacks on the last short climb of the day.
France's Guillaume Martin, who had lost considerable time in the climb up Mount Etna earlier this week, made up for it by featuring in a large breakaway group in which Mathieu van der Poel was the most aggressive rider.
Sunday's ninth stage is a gruelling mountain finish after 191km atop the fiercesome climb to Blockhaus.
VIDEO: 2022 Giro d'Italia Stage 8 Highlights
2022 Giro d'Italia Stage 8 Top 10
01 BEL Thomas De Gendt Lotto Soudal 03:32:53
02 ITA Davide Gabburo Bardiani CSF Faizanè + 00
03 ESP Jorge Arcas Movistar Team + 00
04 BEL Harm Vanhoucke Lotto Soudal + 04
05 ERI Biniam Girmay Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert + 15
06 SUI Mauro Schmid Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team + 15
07 NED Mathieu van der Poel Alpecin-Fenix + 15
08 NED Wout Poels Bahrain Victorious + 33
09 FRA Guillaume Martin Cofidis + 33
10 ITA Fabio Felline Astana Qazaqstan Team + 02:56
2022 Giro d'Italia GC after Stage 8
01 ESP Juan Pedro Lopez Trek-Segafredo 32:15:31
02 GER Lennard Kämna BORA-hansgrohe + 38
03 EST Rein Taaramäe Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert + 58
04 FRA Guillaume Martin Cofidis + 01:06
05 GBR Simon Yates Team BikeExchange-Jayco + 01:42
06 BEL Mauri Vansevenant Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team + 01:47
07 NED Wilco Kelderman BORA-hansgrohe + 01:55
08 POR Joao Almeida UAE Team Emirates + 01:58
09 ESP Pello Bilbao Bahrain Victorious + 02:00
10 AUS Richie Porte INEOS Grenadiers + 02:04