Stage 8

The road

At the start

A Canadian in pink for the first time

Ryder Hesjedal woke up in the maglia rosa, the first Canadian ever to own one, with Paolo Tiralongo at fifteen seconds and Joaquim Rodríguez at seventeen. Kreuziger is at thirty-five, Basso at forty; nobody is out of this yet. Today is the longest day so far — two hundred and twenty-nine kilometres of rolling road to Lago Laceno, with the Colle Molella ramping up in the last ten of them.

How it was won

1. 1200 km to go

   Four go, eleven minutes follow

   With two hundred kilometres still to ride, Amador, Bérard, Marczyński and Mínguez slip away, and a bunch content to freewheel hands them more than eleven minutes.

2. 235 km to go

   Katusha turn the screw

   Thirty-five kilometres out the gap starts falling off a cliff as Katusha come to the front. It is the worst possible moment for Peter Stetina to puncture; he gets a wheel from Hunter and a tow from Bauer, and the effort is written all over him later.

3. 317 km to go

   Caught, and Astana line it up

   Amador and Marczyński are swept up seventeen kilometres from home. A long line of Astana riders takes over, then Liquigas put Szmyd on the front to set an even tempo for Ivan Basso as the Colle Molella begins.

4. 47 km to go

   Pozzovivo goes on the steep part

   Seven kilometres from Lago Laceno the road ramps and one of the smallest men in the race jumps. Domenico Pozzovivo has been threatening this since he won the Giro di Trentino a month ago, and thirty seconds open behind him in a matter of moments.

5. 54 km to go

   Over the Colle Molella

   Over the top of the Colle Molella he still has most of it. Beñat Intxausti is chasing hard and cannot see him; behind Intxausti the maglia rosa group is closing on nothing but each other.

6. 6At the line

   Pozzovivo's biggest day

   He holds enough of the thirty seconds to win the biggest race of his life. Intxausti takes second; Joaquim Rodríguez outsprints Thomas De Gendt for third and the eight-second bonus, and moves to within nine seconds of Hesjedal.

The result