Luke Plapp completes the breakaway in the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia. Ulissi is the new leader

Great cycling day in a medium mountain stage in the Giro d'Italia, just like yesterday, with Abruzzo as the setting in a transition day that seemed destined for resolution by a high-level breakaway. A day of attacks, counterattacks, cyclists in small groups, changes in the situation, and a new pink jersey in the figure of Diego Ulissi.

XDS Astana continues to shine and now also holds the pink jersey in the Giro d'Italia

A couple of days ago we talked about the resurgence of XDS-Astana in this 2025, the last year of the three-year validity period of the World Tour licenses, to avoid relegation positions. A performance that has reached its peak in this Giro d'Italia 2025 where its cyclists have been in the Top10 scoring points in practically every stage and now, after the first stage completed by a breakaway, they also manage to win the coveted prize of the pink jersey.

Stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia presented a medium mountain route through the Apennines with a first third-category climb at kilometer 60, Croce di Casale; the tough ascent to Sassotetto midway through the stage and a final part with another third-category climb, Montelago; and a final rolling section with two small climbs, the first one not counting for the mountain classification but hosting the Red Bull Km, Castel Santa Maria, and a categorized wall of fourth category less than 7 km from the finish, Gagliole.

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As expected, a fast start with constant attacks and a breakaway that did not succeed. It was necessary to wait until the first of the climbs for a group of 18 riders to finally form, with names like Van Baarle, Bardet, Formolo, Igor Arrieta, Lorenzo Fortunato, and Diego Ulissi, the latter two being the best classified, 2:57 and 4:01 behind Primoz Roglic in the General Classification respectively.

As usually happens in such large breakaways, tensions begin to appear within the group and with the arrival of the main climb of the day, the ascent to Sassotetto, the group splits initially, leaving the three Cofidis members of the breakaway struggling and having to work hard to catch up almost at the top, compromising their chances.

At the top, Romain Bardet attacked to try to get into the mountain classification fight, but alongside him was the current blue jersey, Lorenzo Fortunato, who took the maximum points and then, taking advantage of the situation, they pushed forward trying to open a gap on the descent. Their attack did not have an effect, but it did open the door for further attacks, and the breakaway was eventually reduced to Kelderman, Ulissi, Steinhauser, Arrieta, Vendrame, Plapp, and Bardet.

It was not until the top of the Montelago climb that the definitive attack took place when the Australian Luke Plapp launched a strong attack that gradually allowed him to use his time trial skills in the descent and subsequent rolling section, extending his lead to over two minutes. Behind, the race also split, with Kelderman, Arrieta, and Ulissi chasing, and further back were Prodhomme, Vendrame, Bardet, and Fortunato.

All this while the peloton had lost control of the time gap, so for many kilometers, the virtual pink jersey belonged to one of the two XDS-Astana riders, in fact, in the final kilometers, the excitement also focused on which of the two would take the precious garment that recognizes the leader of the Giro d'Italia.

In the final part, Igor Arrieta tried to attack and close the gap with Luke Plapp, but not only did he fail to do so, but he was caught by Kelderman and Ulissi who dropped him on the last climb. Meanwhile, Tom Pidckock added uncertainty to the stage finish with a timid attack on this ascent that was quickly responded to by an attentive Juan Ayuso without major consequences.

Luke Plapp arrived victorious at the finish line, marking only his 8th victory as a professional cyclist, but undoubtedly the most important of all, as all his previous victories, except for one in a stage of the Tour of Greece, were Australian championships, both in time trial and road race, a competition held in January, before the Tour Down Under, and therefore not of excessively high level.

Kelderman and Ulissi crossed the line 39 seconds later, and the clocks were ticking to see if Ulissi would finally take the lead in the Giro d'Italia, as the late attacks had significantly reduced the time gaps. In the end, Juan Ayuso managed to gain a second on Primoz Roglic in the final small climb, with 4:49 since Plapp crossed the line, enough for Ulissi to wear the pink jersey with a 17-second lead over Roglic, and his XDS-Astana teammate and mountain classification leader moved up to second place. A meager result for the Chinese-Kazakh team in terms of the valuable points they are pursuing to secure their World Tour spot.

Stage 8 Classification

1. Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) 4h44'20''
2. Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) +38''
3. Diego Ulissi (XDS-Astana) +38''
4. Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +1'22''
5. Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +1'35''
6. Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +1'48''
7. Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana) +1'48''
8. Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) +2'59''
9. Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL) +3'02''
10. Alessio Martinelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) +4'37''

General Classification

1. Diego Ulissi (XDS-Astana) 29h21'23''
2. Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana) +12''
3. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +17''
4. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +20''
5. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +26''
6. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +44''
7. Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) +47''
8. Michael Storer (Tudor) +50''
9. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +50''
10. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +56''