Giro d’Italia 2023: Ben Healy lands 50km solo attack on Stage 8, Primoz Roglic and Ineos test Remco Evenepoel

Ireland’s Ben Healy (EF Education–EasyPost) landed an audacious 50km solo attack to take a stunning win on Stage 8 at the Giro d’Italia, while Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart (both Ineos Grenadiers) exposed cracks in Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep). The 22-year-old rode clear of the breakaway on the first ascent of the Cappuccini and quickly disappeared up the road.

He rarely looked troubled as he came home 1’49” clear of a select chase group for a statement win on his Grand Tour debut. Ad Back down the tarmac, the general classification action belatedly sparked into life on the final climb as Roglic – and then Thomas and Geoghegan Hart – took the fight to pre-race favourite Evenepoel.

Roglic dragged the Ineos pair to the finish down the last descent, only getting token support from his rivals when the road flattened out. Giro d'Italia'A long way to go…' — Watch Healy’s daring attack with 50km to go on Stage 842 MINUTES AGO Evenepoel arrived within 14 seconds of the trio to stay ahead of them on GC, with Andreas Leknessund (DSM) surviving to keep the maglia rosa for another day.

Leknessund, whose lead was cut to eight seconds, will expect to lose pink on Sunday, when Evenepoel, Roglic and the Ineos duo will go toe-to-toe at the top of the leaderboard in a pan-flat 35km individual time trial. More to follow.