'Given up' to 'fastest here' – The extraordinary return of 'Thomas the Tank Engine' De Gendt at Giro d'Italia

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) looked like he had “given up” on winning more Grand Tour stages before his explosive renaissance at the Giro d’Italia on Stage 8, according to Dan Lloyd on The Breakaway. The Belgian returned to his breakaway throne with an outrageous win on Saturday, despite almost single-handedly keeping the leaders ahead of a chase group.

Ad/> An exhilarating finale saw a front group of four slowly reeled in by a chase pack of five, which contained pre-stage favourites Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarche–Wanty–Gobert Materiaux). /> Giro d'ItaliaStage 8 highlights: De Gendt tees up his own victory as Van der Poel denied4 HOURS AGO But the leaders had a wildcard in old head De Gendt, who marshalled his inexperienced team-mate Harm Vanhoucke and novices Davide Gabburo (Bardiani–CSF–Faizane) and Jorge Arcas (Movistar) throughout.

De Gendt appeared to be riding to tee up team-mate Vanhoucke for victory, but they swapped roles in the final 3km, allowing the 35-year-old to power down the home straight for another memorable win from the breakaway – 10 years after his only other triumph at the Giro. “I was working for Harm, [hoping] that he could attack on the [final] climb,” admitted De Gendt afterwards.

“But he said he didn’t have good legs any more so I said in the last 3km to Harm, ‘you ride full and I’m sure I will win the sprint, I’m sure’. “He did it perfectly until 300m to go so I have to thank Harm a lot that he could pull this off for me.

“If you would have asked me two years ago if I was able to win a stage in the Giro, I would have said no because I was in such bad shape. And now the good legs are coming.” Giro d'Italia GC standings ‘Slow down!’ – Desperate fan pleads