Thomas De Gendt won the eighth stage in the Giro d’Italia on Saturday. The Belgian was the strongest in the sprint of a leading group of four riders. Mathieu van der Poel just came up short and finished seventh.
The eighth stage took the peloton over 153 kilometers to and from Naples. There was only one categorized ascent of the fourth category along the way, but it went up and down all day in the south of Italy.
Immediately after the start Mathieu van der Poel jumped out of the pack and got twenty riders with him. Among them were Wout Poels, Thomas De Gendt, Diego Ulissi, Guillaume Martin and Biniam Girmay. For a long time the group had a small lead of three minutes.
At 46 kilometers from the finish it was not going fast enough for Van der Poel, after which he decided to attack. The Dutchman did not get any space from his fellow refugees, after which De Gendt, Harm Vanhoucke, Davide Gabburo, Simone Ravanelli and Jorge Arcas managed to make a hole.
The quintet took a forty second lead, although Ravanelli was unable to keep up with the pace moments later. The difference narrowed slightly when Van der Poel rode away from the chasing group on a climb. The leader of Alpecin-Fenix got Poels, Martin, Girmay and Mauro Schmid with him.
The leading group of four worked well together, but it remained exciting until the final. At 3 kilometers from the finish, Van der Poel and Girmay jumped away from the chasing group and they came very close to the front runners, but they came just short. De Gendt then sprinted to the win in the streets of Naples.