Crash dashes stage victory hope for Conti

The curtain was drawn on a dramatic eighth stage of the 100th Giro d’Italia on Saturday, 13 May with Valerio Conti crashing 900 metres away from the finish line taking him out of first position. UAE Team Emirates continues to rank first in Teams Classification and Jan Polanc successfully defending the Maglia Azzura for the fourth stage in a row. The 189km eighth stage through Puglia in southeast Italy was won by Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) after UAE Team Emirates rider Conti crashed on a tight corner close to the finish line.

A disheartened Conti commented, “It’s a shame. I made a mistake and I’m so sorry. I believed in the victory. Maybe I exaggerated a bit in the turn pedalling too much. Maybe I had too much adrenaline in order to get through the final few metres. I fell still attached to the pedal and lost time. I did a perfect stage in the finale the strongest breakaway riders remained in front and we were ready to fight in order to win the stage. The only thing I can say is I was feeling good and believed in the stage victory. Now I’m really sorry and disappointed. I hope there will be another occasion because I am in good shape.”

 Tomorrow’s stage nine starts in Montenero di Bisaccia and is known to shakeup the overall classification. While Mount Etna was the first mountain finish of the 100th Giro d’Italia, stage nine to Blockhaus is the first brutal finish. The 152km stage is short and mostly flat but ends with the 13.6km climb to the finish line, with an gradient of 8.4 % and peak of 14%, for the final 10km.

Stage result

1 Izagirre Gorka (Movistar)

2 Visconti Giovanni (Baharain-Merida)

3 Sanchez Luis Leon (Astana)

General classification after stage seven

1 Bob Jungels (Quick – Step Floors) 23:22:07

2 Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) 0:00:06

3 Adam Yates (Orica – Scott) 0:00:10

17 Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) 00:00:46