Three stages won in the first eight. This time without a solo or an infernal rhythm, but practically playing like cat and mouse against your opponents: Tadej Pogacar also wins the eighth stage of the 2024 Giro d'Italia, the 152 kilometer Spoleto – Prati di Tivo. The Slovenian led the group of best riders remaining at the top of the last climb in the sprint, with Daniel Martinez (BORA – hansgrohe) second and Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Difesa) third. The Uae captain controlled the last kilometers without even making an effort, managing his opponents' advances and leaving nothing behind: a cannibal some would say, but the Slovenian's intention is only one: to close the discussion for the general classification as soon as possible , and then think about the Tour de France. At the end of the stage the pink jersey reiterated that he did not expect to be able to win again after dominating in yesterday's individual time trial: “As a team we ran very well from the start. Rafal Majka did an excellent job at the head of the pink jersey group As soon as we got over the first climb of the day, my teammates wanted me to go and win the stage. We've already seen Dani Martinez do very well this year, obviously I was thinking of him as the main opponent, but it wasn't the case. unique Antonio Tiberi tried a couple of times” https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/sport/2024/05/11/giro-ditalia-pogacar-asso-pigliatutto-lo-sloveno-vince-anche-a- prati-di-tivo-9f620f4e-57e8-44a2-b225-bf966727ba22/.”I had more or less everything under control – he reiterated -. I hope that tomorrow will be a relaxing day, but the last 50 km are treacherous, so I will have to stay concentrated up to Naples”. Tomorrow we return to the road to face the ninth stage of the 107th edition of the race, the 214 kilometer Avezzano – Naples, the last effort before the rest day: a hilly stage, with the first part flowing and the last stage quite technical. A sprint finish is expected, but pay attention to the final climbs and the Monte di Procida GPM.
Worth highlighting is the excellent performance of the runner from Bahrain – Victorious, in the final kilometers there were two sprints to try to make a selection and win the stage: good fourth place in the third uphill finish of the pink race, now the blue is sixth with 4' 23″ behind. “Today our legs were good, we tried to keep a hard pace. In the end I tried to make some gains, but Tadej managed to win, congratulations to him. I expected an attack from him earlier, but now he has a good gap in the standings”, he declared to Rai Sport. Not even the attempts by fifteen pacesetters were enough, the group of the best recovered the 30″ gained by Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Difesa Team), the only one who tried to break away from his breakaway companions about 10 kilometers from the finish line. Then the management by Pogacar, without overdoing it, without ever trying to reach out alone: Majka escorted his captain up to 200 metres, from then on the leader took care of silencing everyone with the usual sprint.