After a disappointing start to the race, Benat Intxausti (Movistar) bounce back in the greatest way by winning the first big mountain stage of the Giro d’Italia. Having been part of a 12-rider breakaway, the Basque didn’t do much work all day but saved it all for the finale where he escaped to take a solo victory. Richie Porte (Sky) and Fabio Aru (Astana) both attacked but the favourites finished together and so Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) defended the overall lead.

 

Having finished in the top 10 in 2013, Benat Intxausti arrived at the Giro d’Italia with the goal of improving on that performance. However, nothing worked for the Basque who suffered immensely in the heat in the first week and so had to change his plans to focus on stage wins.

 

He didn’t have to wait long to achieve his goal as he came out on top in the first big battle in the mountains in the Italian grand tour. With a smart ride, he bluffed while riding in a 12-rider breakaway and seemed to be suffering throughout most of the end. However, he had just played his cards wisely and on the final climb he was able to both distance his companions and hold off the favourites to take a huge solo win.

 

After a frantic start to the race, Intxausti made it into an 11-rider chase group that attacked on the first climb of the day and took off in pursuit of Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo). He was joined by Carlos Betancur (Ag2r), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), Franco Pellizotti (Androni),Sebastien Reichenbach (IAM), Kristof Vandewalle (Trek), Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida), Branislau Samoliau (CCC), Mauro Finetto (Southeast), Manuel Bongiorno (Bardiani) and Tom Danielson (Cannondale) to form a very strong group of climbers.

 

As they hit the final 13km climb, Betancur and Vandewalle had bridged across to Kruijswijk and those three riders got to the bottom with an advantage of 1.30 over their 9 chasers and 5.10 over the peloton in which Astana were setting a fast pace with Andrey Zeits, Davide Malacarne and Diego Rosa. As soon as they started to climb, Betancur launched an attack but he was countered by Kruijswijk who easily passed the fading Colombian.

 

Meanwhile, the attacking started tin the chasse group and it was Zakarin who opened the show. Pellizotti and Finetto were the first to get dropped and later Samoilau was also distanced.

 

In the peloton, Astana was in complete control with Luis Leon Sanchez doing a lot of damage. Later Rosa took over and the gap was melting away while the peloton had already been whittled down to around 30 riders as they entered the final 30km.

 

The attacking continued in the chase group until Intxausti and Reichenbach got a gap. With the Swiss doing all the work, they passed Betancur and later also Vandewalle to gradually edge closer to the lone Kruijswijk.

 

In the peloton Paolo Tiralongo had taken over for Astana and whittled the main group down to just Landa, Kangert, Tiralongo, Aru, Landa, Pirazzi, Caruso, Moinard, Atapuma, Uran, de la Cruz, Geniez, Elissonde, Polanc, VDB, Fernandez, Amador, Anton, Visconti, Izagirre, Cunego, Chaves, Hesjedal, Formolo, Trofimov, Porte, Nieve, König, Henao, Rogers, Kreuziger and Rogers. When he swung off, Kangert took over and they had now caught all the attackers except Kruijswijk, Vandewalle, Reichenbach and Intxausti.

 

Lots of riders were getting dropped due to Kangert’s fast pace and with 5km to go, they were just 2.15 behind the lone leader. Meanwhile, Intxausti and Reichenbach were getting closer to Kruijwsijk and with 4km to go, they passed Vandewalle.

 

That’s when Aru launched the expected attack with his teammate Mikel Landa glued to his wheel. Alberto Contador, Richie Porte and Rigoberto Uran quickly joined him and as they slowed down, Landa took off.

 

Mikel Nieve, Leopold König and Dario Cataldo also made it back and the former immediately started to work. However, he could not prevent Damiano Cunego, Damiano Caruso, Darwin Atapuma, Jurgen van den Broeck, Andrey Amador and Ion Izagirre from rejoining them.

 

With 3km to go, Intxuasti and Reichenbach passed Kruijswijk and moments later Intxausti showed that he had been bluffing. The Basque made a big attack and Reichenbach had no response.

 

In the peloton Nieve swung off and left it to König to set the pace.  Meanwhile, Landa and the peloton all passed Vandewalle and Kruijswijk.

 

Intxausti was riding very strongly and he managed to extend his advantage over the peloton from 50 seconds to 1.10. The pace was not very fast and so Cunego managed to escape.

 

Landa was getting closer to Intxausti and managed to pass Reichenbach but it was all too late. Intxautsi held on to win the stage while Landa and Reichenbach held the favourites off to complete the podium.

 

In the finale, Aru made another attack but Porte, Contador, Uran, Caruso, Cataldo and Izagirre could all respond. They passed Cunego before Porte gave it a go.

 

The Australian rode very fast and only Contador, Uran, Aru and Cataldo could keep up with him. However, his efforts didn’t pay off and it was Aru who won the sprint for fourth from the five-rider group.

 

Earlier in the stage Contador had picked up 2 bonus seconds and so he extended his lead over Aru to 4 seconds as he goes into stage 9. The lumpy stage is full of ups and downs and includes a category 2 and a category 1 climb at the midpoint. In the finale there’s a short, steep category 2 climb just 11.6km from the finish and the final kilometres are all slightly uphill.

 

The first big mountain stage

After two days for the fast riders, it was time for the first big mountain stage which brought the riders over 186km from Fiuggi to Campitelle Matese. After a rolling first part, the riders hit a long 26km category 2 climb before they hit a long gradual descent that led to the bottom of the final climb. The ascent was 13km long with an average gradient of 6.9% and was expected to be the scene of the first big battle between the GC riders.

 

There were no non-starters when the riders gathered for in Fiuggi for the first big battle in the mountains. For the first time in this year’s race, rain was falling as they headed out on their short neutral ride.

 

A group gets clear

As in every mountain stage, it could be a day for a breakaway and so it was no surprise that the race got off to a brutally fast start with lots of attacks. After 9km of racing, a strong 9-rider group with Gianfranco Zilioli (Androni), Branislau Samoilau (CCC), Roger Kluge (IAM), Louis Vervaeke (Lotto Soudal), Ruben Fernandez (Movistar), Eduard Grosu (Nippo), Elia Favilli (Southeast), Tom Danielson (Cannondale) and Maxim Belkov (Katusha) got clear.

 

At the 20km mark, they had extended their advantage to 50 seconds but Bardiani were in a determined mood. They set a fast pace and brought the group back after 24km of racing. Grosu won the first intermediate sprint but Contador was attentive and sprinted to second to take two bonus seconds.

 

Lots of attacks

Sky took control and made the peloton split to pieces. Quickly the first group built an advantage of 1.05 over the second one and it was a 100-rider group that hit the bottom of the first climb.

 

Here the attacking started for real and lots of groups have constantly been getting clear before being neutralized again. Tinkoff-Saxo had to ride hard on the front in an attempt to keep it under control and they had to work hard to bring back a very big group.

 

Kruijswijk takes off

As the junction was made, Kruijswijk took off and later Betancur, Pellizotti, Bongiorno, Zakarin, Danielson, Niemiec, Finetto, Vandewalle, Intxuasti, Reichenbach and Samoilau also got clear. Finally, the group slowed down as Tinkoff-Saxo took a natural break and this allowed almost the entire peloton to come back together while the gap grew quickly.

 

With 120km to go, Manuele Boaro and Matteo Tosatto had made it back to the peloton and they started to ride tempo on the front. Later Ivan Rovny also came to the fore but they had no interest in catching the break so the gap went out to6.45 with 11km to go.

 

Pellizotti and Betancur attack

Here Pellizotti attacked from the chase group which was 2.05 behind Kruijswijk and not working well. Betancur joined him and those two riders worked well together to gradually get closer. Near the summit Zakarin also tried to attack but he failed to get clear.

 

At the top Kruijswijk was first while Pellizotti led Betancur across the line 1.06 later. Intxausti and Danielson were first from the chase group which had lost 1.30. Boaro led the peloton over the top with a deficit of 7.50.

 

A front trio is formed

Kruijswijk decided to wait for Betancur and Pellizotti while Vandewalle attacked out of the chase group. With an impressive solo effort over 15km, he made it across when 78km remained.

 

In the peloton, Nippo-Vini Fantini started to chase with Grosu, Riccardo Stacchiotti and Manabu Ishibashi but they didn’t really get any closer. For a long time, the gap stayed at around 9.15 while the chase group was dangling 50 seconds behind the leaders.

 

Pellizotti drops back

Finally, the chasers got organized and so they brought the gap down to 15 seconds with 60km to go. That was the signal for Pellizotti to drop back but he made a big mistake. The cooperation disappeared and suddenly the gap had gone out to 50 seconds.

 

With 55km to go, Astana put Andrey Zeits on the front and he started to work with the Nippo riders. BMC also briefly put Stefan Küng up there but the gap stayed between 8 and 9 minutes for a long.

 

Astana kick into action

Kruijswijk led Vandewalle and Betancur across the line in the final intermediate sprint where Tinkoff-Saxo kicked into action. Tosatto and Rovny started to ride full gas and now the gap was coming down quickly.

 

With 25km to go, Astana decided to make the race hard, with Rosa, Zeits and Malacarne significantly upping the pace. With 23km to go, the gap was 6.15 and with 15km to go, it was only 5.35 as the big fight for position had now also started.

 

The chasers were losing ground and as they got to the climb, they had been distanced by 1.30. The peloton was at 5.10 and moments later it all exploded in the exciting finale.