Giro d’Italia 2025 LIVE: Stage 8 updates, route and results today

Dylan van Baarle puts in a dig to distance those in the break who aren’t pulling their weight.

It has the desired effect and the leading group is down to 13, including a stage winner last year in Georg Steinhauser, van Baarle, Fortunato, Bardet, Kelderman, Arrieta, Tarozzi, and Luke Plapp.

A little over 8km to go on this long climb.

Fortunato rolls across the intermediate sprint at Sarnano first, but there’s no fight for the points.

Red Bull seem a bit happier with the situation now but there are worrying signs for them as that huge breakaway got away from them. They don’t have the strength in numbers or sheer power of UAE, particularly after the loss of Jai Hindley, and it’s a lot tougher for them to control things.

A gap of a minute and a half back to the fairly reduced bunch now, and they’re onto the Sassotetto (Valico di Santa Maria Maddalena) climb: 13.1km, averaging 7%, with maximum gradients of 14%.

Plenty of teams are represented in this move: Decathlon, EF, UAE, Israel PremierTech, Movistar, Q36.5, Visma… no Red Bull and no Ineos, which is something of a surprise after the attacking intent shown by Tarling and Turner particularly so far in this race. But there are splits already – inevitable with such a massive group – and Fortunato is encouraging the others to ride hard, with more points for him to gain today.

Manuele Tarozzi is working flat out to haul himself across and there’s another couple of riders behind him too with the same aim.

The break has a minute’s advantage now but that could all change ahead of the category 1 climb. But it looks like we might be set, with riders taking nature breaks in the peloton and looking to relax a bit.

Romain Bardet has looked very sprightly and he launches another powerful move uphill again to bridge across to this bunch, dragging Cofidis’ Sylvain Moniquet – Fortunato’s KOM rival – with him.

They get over a little rise and are onto another descent with half a minute’s advantage.

Luke Plapp and UAE’s Igor Arrieta are in this group too, which is closer to 20 riders now.

Another group has formed with around 15 seconds on the bunch. There’s 10 riders or so, including Kelderman, teammate Dylan van Baarle, Remy Rochas and KOM leader Fortunato.

This has just been relentless all day.

And the six are mopped up. Where’s the next move coming from?

There’s another little rise coming before the second intermediate sprint at Sarnano and then the really serious category one climb at Sassotetto.

We’re now onto quite a tricky, technical descent, and three riders have bridged across to that trio who went over the climb first: Kelderman, Bardet, and Louis Meintjes (Intermarche-Wanty).

We can’t yet see a time gap between them and the peloton but it’s strung out behind them as more riders either try to keep safe on this descent or join the escapees.

Approaching the top of this climb and the attacks are simply relentless.

Josh Tarling went further down the climb, and now 2014 champion Nairo Quintana goes clear with a pair of Polti VisitMalta riders. Davide Piganzoli wins the KOM points, followed by Alessandro Tonelli and Quintana. That trio fly off on the descent with Visma in hot pursuit.

Romain Bardet seems no worse for wear after his crash yesterday and he’s rather lively too.

Paul Double, undaunted by his efforts in the breakaway yesterday, is right back in the thick of things now. He’s now third in the KOM points and Lorenzo Fortunato is eyeing him warily as they tackle this climb.

They’re onto the 7km Croce di Casale and it’s pretty cagey – but Double has a dig! Wilco Kelderman drags him back – Visma clearly want something out of this.

Quick tally of the points at that intermediate sprint: Pedersen picked up 12 to add to his healthy lead, with De Pretto taking eight, Cattaneo five, and Milesi the remaining three.

One job done, Pedersen and his companions sit up, perhaps knowing that the fireworks behind won’t stop.

From here the profile changes quite dramatically, with a category three climb at Croce di Casale approaching in 1km time, and then it’s up and down all here.

The breakaway are absorbed without any fuss and the games begin again.