A good day for the breakaway with a hard stage and some cold weather returning to the Giro.
¡Gracias Movistar!: the early breakaway was swept up on the main climb thanks to the fast pace set by Movistar. The Spanish team quickly cracked several sprinters, first was Arnaud De Lie who soon abandoned. This was the predicted elimination tactic at work, ejecting all the sprinters while allowing their fast rider Orluis Aular to hold on. The first surprise came with Thomas Silva being dropped early, and then more as Egan Bernal and Derek Gee-West were popped.
Bernal and Gee would get back on the descent with help from team mates sent back to fetch them, Gee-West still sore from injuries but Bernal a surprise. Visma-LAB could have joined Movistar to ensure the pair lost time, but left the Spanish team to work alone.
Jan Christen took the intermediate time bonus and then made a late attack in the streets of Cosenza but was ridden down. In the finishing straight Orluis Aular tried to complete Movistar’s work but ended up on the too early and could not sustain his sprint. So in the end UAE won, this time with Jhonatan Narvaez. And thanks to time bonuses from the intermediate and the finish Giulio Ciccone is the new maglia rosa with four seconds on Christen.
Kudos to Movistar for trying, sometimes infamous for incomprehensible tactics, this was their rational path to victory and they were only a few metres short. Their loss was our benefit with a lively stage.
It’s also a relief result for Lidl-Trek as they haven’t won a race since Tirreno-Adriatico and while they’ve been close with Jonathan Milan this week, they’ve also been hit with more bad luck because of Gee-West’s crash on Saturday and the big budget team needs days like this.
The Route: 203km and what’s Italian for déjà vu? The last 70km from Viggiano are almost identical. to Stage 7 from 2022. The difference is today is not as hilly as last time, but there are still 3,700m of vertical gain.
It’s uphill from the start including the Valico di Prestieri, a proper mountain pass that should help the breakaway form even if it is not categorised.
The Montagna Grande di Viggiano is the hardest climb of the day, 6km at 9% towards a small ski station. There’s still a long way to go so it’s not quite a launchpad for the stage win but a chance for the climbers to make life hard for the others.
Last time La Sellata, was a proper climb again but this time the approach is across a plateau and so flatter. Altogether it’s a hard stage with a lot of vertical gain but nothing fierce so it makes it accessible to many.
The Finish: a run around the streets of Potenza. It has some of the same roads as 2022 but last time the finish went up a steep ramp to the line, this is on a wider, gentler slope.
The Contenders: with about 125 riders over four minutes down of which almost a hundred have lost ten minutes or more there’s plenty of space to go in the breakaway.
The archetypal winner today is among these riders, does not have any big GC duties today, can cope with the Viggiano climb and quick enough to win the sprint up the false flat. Meet… Michael Valgren (EF) as he fits the bill for a stage like this although he might prefer to go solo than sprint against others. Other suggestions include Magnus Sheffield (Netcompany-Ineos) as a raw talent and attaque de Brieuc Rolland (Groupama-FDJ), he was very active in the Vuelta last year and suited today. But plenty more riders get a chance.
Both Javier Romo (Movistar) and Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X) seem really suited but they’re only three minutes down so will have less room.
If the breakaway can’t form or stick then for the finish we’ll see if Jan Christen (UAE) can play it cool, and UAE have a good reason to chase today because he can win the stage then he stands to gain the maglia rosa, as even if tied on time he’s placed better than Ciccone on countback. So Lidl-Trek have a good reason to let the break go and chase later. Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) is good for the finish and Orluis Aular (Movistar) can try again too.
Koen Bouwman (Jayco) won here in 2022 but a repeat would be a surprise, team mate Alan Hatherly
 |
– |
 |
Valgren, Christen, Van Eetvelt |
 |
Aular, Sheffield, Ciccone, Leknessund |
Weather: yesterday’s hot weather had plenty of riders sweating but today it’ll be much cooler, 14°C in land and some rain showers.
TV: KM0 is at 12.25 and it could be worth watching the fight for the breakaway. The finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST. Otherwise tune in at 3.40 for for Viggiano and the start of the climb.
Postcard from Potenza
Today’s stage finishes in Potenza and shares many of the same roads as the Giro’s finish here in 2022. It’s the 15th arrival of the Giro in Potenza but only third time this century so it’s hardly a place to be tired of, whether you’re on the race or the sofa.
Grand tours offer a blend of discovery and familiarity and there’s a skill to getting the blend right. New places can intrigue, especially if there’s visual charm. In recent years Alberobello with its trulli stone houses or Matera with its sassi, inhabited stone caves are memorable.
These can delight the race but also offer tourist appeal, important for Italy grappling with “overtourism”, the phenomenon of places being overwhelmed by inbound tourists to the point where locals feel excluded, something that is acute in Rome and Venice, and crucially in certain parts of these cities to the point where a part of town, or even one coffee shop becomes a destination because of algorithmic herding.
The Giro alone can’t divert tourists away from Rome-World or Venice-Park but it can play a role in suggesting there is more to see. Only it struggles to lean into the aesthetics and charms of Italy. Potenza today is not in the top-10 jewels of Italy to put it gently but still has plenty to delight with its squares, cathedrals, theatres and arched gateways. Italy is not short of these.
But the Giro is. Today’s finish is on a bland four lane highway (pictured). Often the stages finishes on the edge of town because it’s easier logistically, or the authorities don’t want to close down the town and upset shopkeepers.
In some ways this makes the Giro a real tour of Italy, a passive celebration of the roundabouts and bypasses used daily by millions rather than tourist traps. But the race could combine the visual with the sporting. The finish of Stage 8 is Fermo will do just this but it feels like the exception on the course.