Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-Quick Step) capitalised on his strong position in GC to take the pink jersey along with stage victory on the eighth day at the Giro d'Italia, attacking from the breakaway to take his maiden Grand Tour stage victory.
It was a bad day for race leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) though, who was dropped by his GC rivals on the category two climb of Alpe di Poti and slipped out of the top-10 overall.
Italian Brambilla sat at 1-56 at the start of the day, but was able to find himself in the large 13-man breakaway group which managed to establish a five minute gap on the bunch behind.
And the chase in earnest never really got going in the main group, with Giant-Alpecin forced to do much of the work, and the break still carried over four minutes within the final 40km.
The key moment of the day was always going to be the Alpe di Poti and its dirt roads within the final 25km of the 186km route, and the break quickly fell apart as the likes of Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Brambilla attacked.
The 28-year-old Etixx rider was able to rapidly put a decent gap between him and his breakaway companions and managed to hold Montaguti at around 45 seconds behind with the GC contenders almost two minutes back, as he made a daring and fast descent from the summit of the climb.
As Brambilla powered on, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was causing fractures in the group behind as he attacked on the early slopes of the climb with around 23.9km to go, with all the GC hopefuls, including Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) and Mikel Landa (Sky) all able to stick with the Spanish champion.
But there was no such luck for the pink jersey Dumoulin, as he was quickly dropped and struggled to make any gains into the minute he quickly lost on the Valverde group.
As Brambilla soloed to victory in Arezzo, the GC contenders rolled in 1-41 behind, with a slight split of three seconds to a group containing Nibali, Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) in the sprint for the finish. But Dumoulin could only minimise his losses to around 1-10, slipping to 11th overall.
With the long time trial on Sunday, there's still a strong chance for the Dutchman to retake the pink jersey and overhaul the 1-05 gap to Brambilla at the top of the standings. But he'll have to wary of the likes of Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) who sits at 23 seconds in second place and is an able rider against the clock and will certainly have his eyes on pink.
Sunday's stage nine sees the riders take on the rolling 40.5km Chianti time trial that could have a big impact on the overall classification of this Giro d'Italia, with a welcome rest day on Monday as the race heads towards its second week.
Results
Giro d'Italia 2016 stage eight, Foligno - Arezzo (186km)
1. Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx-Quick Step, in 4-14-05
2. Matteo Montaguti (Ita) Ag2r La Mondiale, at 1-06
3. Moreno Moser (Ita) Cannondale, at 1-27
4. Jaco Venter (RSA) Dimension Data, at 1-28
5. Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) BMC, at 1-33
6. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, at 1-41
7. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
8. Mikel Landa (Esp) Team Sky
9. Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge
10. Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha, all same time
Overall classification after stage eight
1. Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx-Quick Step, in 33-39-14
2. Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha, at 23s
3. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, at 33s
4. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, at 36s
5. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, at 45s
6. Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, at 48s
7. Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale, at 49s
8. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff, at 54
9. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r La Mondiale, st
10. Mikel Landa (Esp) Team Sky, at 1-03
11. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, at 1-05
-
-
Seven men jailed for stealing bikes worth £70k from Rutland Cycling shop
Police caught the gang of thieves who had stolen 23 bikes from the chain store in Grafham Water
By Ryan Dabbs •
-
These are all the teams applying for WorldTeam and Women’s WorldTeam status next year
Qhubeka-NextHash miss the first deadline, as five women’s teams apply to step up to the top level
By Alex Ballinger •
-
Giro d’Italia was Remco Evenepoel’s ‘first defeat,’ says Patrick Lefevere
Evenepoel went into the Giro as one of the favourites despite a lack of racing due to injury
By Alex Ballinger •
-
Remco Evenepoel vows to work for João Almeida in the final week of the Giro d'Italia 2021
The Belgian lost 24 minutes as his Portuguese team-mate moved into 10th overall
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Remco Evenepoel doesn't plan on leaving the Giro d'Italia despite dashed GC hopes
The 21-year-old says he would like to make it all the way to Milan in his debut Grand Tour
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Remco Evenepoel loses 24 minutes on stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia 2021
The young Belgian drops out of the top 10 in the overall standings going into the second rest day
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Giro d’Italia 2021: Remco Evenepoel says ‘I felt the legs were pretty empty, that’s why I couldn’t follow’ after brutal gravel stage
The 21-year-old lost two minutes on the road to Montalcino, but said he remains confident and will keep fighting
By Alex Ballinger •
-
Remco Evenepoel sheds over two minutes to Egan Bernal on Giro d'Italia gravel stage
The Belgian struggled through the final 25km of stage 11 as Bernal extended his overall lead
By Richard Windsor •
-
Remco Evenepoel: 'The most important thing is not to lose too much time'
The Belgian narrowly trails race leader Egan Bernal, who says he needs over a minute's advantage before the final time trial
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Team BikeExchange sports director thrown off Giro d'Italia after driving into Pieter Serry on stage six
The sports director did apologise to the Belgian rider but was thrown off the race
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
