Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) has emerged unscathed from some nervous moments on stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia today when he was forced to stop three times, including bike changes, due to mechanical problems.
The Irish rider suffered his problems on the long cat 2 climb of Bocca della Selva, which peaked out with some 50km remaining in the 170km stage from Foggia to Guardia Sanframondi.
Martin, now in his 15th season in the pro peloton, brought all that experience to bear today and very much took it in his stride when he was forced to stop twice. However, by the third time his movements were a little more frantic, though he rejoined the reduced peloton once more without too much difficulty.
The presence of a large breakaway up the road, and over seven minutes clear for a long time, took the sting out of the battle back in the bunch on the 3.1km final climb to the finish line.
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However, Martin's Israel Start-Up Nation team mates were lined out on the front of the small peloton into the base of the climb, being sure to position him properly in the event the other general classification contenders struck out to gain time.
In the end, Ineos Grenadiers set a pace on the climb, for Egan Bernal, that discouraged any attacks. And with nine riders from the breakaway surviving all the way to the finish, almost all of the fancied general classification men finished in what remained of the peloton, which numbered just 26 riders on the line.
The only exception was Jai Hindley, the Team DSM rider being caught behind a small crash in the group on the climb and losing eight seconds to the others. His Irish team mate Nicolas Roche, who is on team duties in this race for Hindley and Romain Bardet, finished in 95th today in a group at 9:40.
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French rider Victor Lafay, a 25-year-old with Cofidis, won the stage by attacking his breakaway companions and riding away to victory up the final climb. He took the win by 36 seconds from Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo-Kometa), with Nikia Arndt (Team DSM) in 3rd at 37 seconds.
Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) was a surprise breakaway rider today and finished alone in 9th place after suffering a nasty crash on a day when one of his sprint rivals, and yesterday's stage winner, Caleb Ewan abandoned. The Australian leaves the Giro early with two stage wins as he is opting to keep his powder dry for the Tour de France.
Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) finished in the remains of the peloton, some 4:48 down on the stage winner. He retains the race lead by 11 seconds from Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and 16 seconds from Egan Bernal (Ineos Grendiers).
Louis Vervaeke (Alpecin-Fenix), who was in 5th placing overall starting today, did not make the favourites' group at stage end and slipped to 10th overall. That meant a number of riders in the top 10 all moved up one place overall, including Dan Martin.
The Irish climber is now 8th, some 47 seconds off the maglia rosa ahead of what could be a crucial stage tomorrow. It takes the riders 158km from Castel di Sangro to Campo Felice-Rocca di Cambio. Much of the final 40km is uphill.
The final climb is 5.9km at an average gradient of 5.7
per cent, though the cat 1 ascent features some gravel sections and also very
steep ramps. Coming as it does the day before the rest day, the favourites,
especially Evenepoel and Bernal, are tipped to take the fight to their rivals.
If the fireworks are set off, as many expect, Valter will come under pressure and one of the big favourites may move into the race lead. It means Evenepoel may be about to become the first Belgian for two decades to pull on the maglia rosa.
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