Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) as taken the bull by the horns on stage 8 at Giro d'Italia, where he has attacked solo from the breakaway with 50km to go, including a number of climbs.
The 22-year-old Irish rider, and Grand Tour debutant, was very aggressive again today in the early phase of the stage. And when the 13-man breakaway went clear on lumpy terrain after the start, Healy was among them.
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The group then rode very well to pull out a gap of almost six minutes on the peloton during the 207km stage from Terni to Fossombrone. However, while there were a number of climbs in the final quarter of the race that could have acted as a springboard for an attack, Healy decided to go very early, perhaps because some of those he was with in the breakaway are very strong riders.
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In that breakaway with Healy were: Toms Skujiņš (Trek-Segafredo), Filippo Zana (Team Jayco AlUla), Alessandro Iacchi (Team Corratec-Selle Italia), Warren Barguil (Team Arkéa Samsic), Carlos Verona (Movistar Team), Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech), Alessandro Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Mattia Bais (EOLO-Kometa), François Bidard (Cofidis), Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën Team).
On the climb of the Cappuccini, for the first passage, Healy attacked hard with 51km to go, just a couple of hundred metres from the top of the ascent. While there was a modest reaction from some of the others, Healy immediately went clear.
He quickly settled into a fierce pace on the head of the race and time checks began to show 40 seconds and then up to one minute. At the time of writing, with 40km to go, Healy had 1:40 over a five-man chasing group with main field 5:30 behind him.
In the five-man chasing group were: Mattia Bais (EOLO-Kometa), Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech), Carlos Verona (Movistar Team), Warren Barguil (Team Arkéa Samsic) and Filippo Zana (Team Jayco AlUla).
