Stage 8

The road

At the start

Match point at Prati di Tivo

Perugia turned the Giro into a rout: Pogačar leads Daniel Martínez by 2:36 and Geraint Thomas, who lost two whole minutes on that climb, by 2:46, with Ben O'Connor fourth at 3:33. Today is the first mountain-top finish since Oropa — 3,800 metres of climbing and then fifteen kilometres up to the ski station at Prati di Tivo, with a cruel intermediate sprint halfway up it. Nothing is over yet, the maglia rosa says.

How it was won

1. 154 km to go

   A 14-man break forms

   After a frenzied fight over the early climbs a strong fourteen finally settles clear, but UAE keep the leash short, never letting the gap stretch past two minutes.

2. 215 km to go

   UAE hit Prati di Tivo

   Onto the 14.7km final climb the whole UAE train winds it up, immediately shelling Plapp and López and reeling the breakaway back metre by metre.

3. 35 km to go

   Pogačar marks every move

   Tiberi and Martínez try their luck inside the last two kilometres, but every attack is instantly shadowed by the pink jersey, who lets Majka lead him back to the front.

4. 4At the line

   The cannibal sprints to a third win

   Off Majka's lead-out Pogačar wins even the uphill sprint, beating Martínez to take another ten bonus seconds and rub salt into his rivals' wounds.

The result