Giro d’Italia 2023: Ben Healy lands 50km solo attack on Stage 8, Primoz Roglic and Ineos test Remco Evenepoel

Ireland’s Ben Healy (EF Education–EasyPost) landed an audacious 50km solo attack to take a stunning win on Stage 8 at the Giro d’Italia, while Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart (both Ineos Grenadiers) exposed cracks in Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).

The 22-year-old rode clear of the breakaway on the first ascent of the Cappuccini and quickly disappeared up the road. He rarely looked troubled as he came home 1’49” clear of a select chase group for a statement win on his Grand Tour debut.

Back up the road, the general classification action belatedly sparked into life on the final climb as Roglic – and then Thomas and Geoghegan Hart – took the fight to pre-race favourite Evenepoel. Roglic dragged the Ineos pair to the finish down the last descent, only getting token support from his rivals when the tarmac flattened out.

Evenepoel arrived within 14 seconds of the trio to stay ahead of them on GC, with Andreas Leknessund (DSM) surviving to keep the maglia rosa for another day.

Healy had been a widely tipped favourite for Saturday’s stage, and signalled his intentions to try to take the win even before the start with his aerodynamic attire choice of skinsuit and overshoes. When the flag dropped, he was the most active of all the riders, involved in almost every effort to form an escape.

Kilometre zero being positioned at the start of an unclassified climb, the 10km Valico della Somma, ought to have made it reasonably easy for a breakaway to form. The sheer volume of riders who wanted to get into it prevented the race from settling down long after the summit had been passed. Twenty kilometres into the stage four riders – Valentin Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen), Derek Gee (Israel PremierTech), Carlos Verona (Movistar) and Healy himself – had been able to achieve a moderate but far from secure lead over the peloton.

Thirty kilometres into the stage and the average speed was close to 50kph. Samuele Battistella of Astana, and Eolo-Kometa’s Erik Fetter were able to bridge across to the quartet but the looming intermediate sprint caused the peloton to up its pace and take a handful of seconds off the lead, which had little more than that in hand.

The wide early roads were of little help, as the escapees were never really out of sight, or at least not for long. Nor was it difficult for riders from behind to find space to ride off the front of the bunch. Finally after six more riders were allowed away, and almost an hour and a half of racing had elapsed, the roads narrowed and a blockage was formed at the head of the peloton, preventing any more attacks. Except one, as Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin Deceuninck) made a late dash, which was inexplicably successful, as a 13-rider breakaway was finally complete. Soon they had three minutes, four and then eventually six as Team DSM took responsibility for the maglia rosa of Andreas Leknessund.

In the middle third of the stage, the racing settled down with the terrain. A glance, or more, towards the final 50km found it resembling a mini Ardennes classic. No rider was better suited to such a run-in as Healy, who had such an effective campaign this past spring – and so it proved.

His breakaway companions were surely primed to expect the Irishman to make a move of some kind on the first ascent of the punchy I Cappuccini but when it came, just a few hundred metres from the top, there was nothing any of them could do about it. If Healy had hoped for some support, he gave no indication that he was unhappy to find himself alone as he sailed over the top towards the second, much longer categorised climb.

The riders behind dithered. Even as Healy was visibly stronger, they gifted him more seconds than they should have. He might have questioned whether he had gone too soon but as he broke the minute mark at the foot of the Cat. 2 Monte Delle Cescane, any doubts were silenced in favour of simply giving it his all. It was just his kind of climb and his legs never even looked like faltering. Healy held 90 seconds over the summit and could take the descent ahead of the next two climbs with relative care.

Still, he took a couple of corners tighter than he might have, even as his sports director, Tejay van Garderen, will have been telling him to take it easy, as he had more than enough of a buffer.

Healy could enjoy himself on the final descent and savour what will surely be the first of many similar victories in his career. Three of his breakaway allies crossed the line almost two minutes later, with Derek Gee (Israel Premier-Tech) winning the select sprint. Filippo Zana (Jayco Alula) took third.

“I know in big groups like this, group dynamics can play a pretty big role in the finish,” said a delighted Healy afterwards. “I backed myself from a long move and didn’t want to take any chances. I went solo, had good legs, and managed to hold it to the finish.”

Norway’s Leknessund, whose lead was cut to eight seconds, will expect to lose pink on Sunday, when Evenepoel and Roglic will look to take control on a pan-flat 35km individual time trial, while the Ineos duo will likely look to limit their losses.

Evenepoel is second on GC at 8″ with Roglic now at 38″, Thomas at 52″ and Geoghegan Hart at 56″.

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