Guardia Sanframondi (Italy) (AFP)

French victory on the Giro: Victor Lafay opened his professional record in the 8th stage of the Giro d'Italia, Saturday at Guardia Sanframondi, after a long breakaway.

In the absence of the Italian Elia Viviani, confined to the places of honor in the sprints so far, the Cofidis team shone thanks to one of its young people, a 25-year-old Savoyard, who proved to be the stronger than a group of nine riders after a 3 kilometer climb to the finish.

To become the 43rd French rider to win a Giro stage, Lafay had to be superior to Nelson Oliveira, a formidable rider.

The Portuguese had already seen the progress of the young Frenchman last month, in a finish at the top of the Tour de Valence where Lafay was only beaten by the Spaniard Enric Mas.

"Oliveira was watching me, we both marked each other a bit," smiled the winner of the day, who was able to run intelligently in the group formed after about fifty kilometers in a stage launched at full speed.

Enough intense to discourage Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan who preferred to quit the race the day after his second stage success.

"I wanted to be in front and I put myself in almost all the blows that came out, I left a lot of energy there. Afterwards, I tried to save myself. Fortunately, the peloton let us go", a explained Lafay, who then waited for the steepest part, in the last 3 kilometers, to attack and overtake the Italian Giovanni Carboni who had left in the vanguard.

- Valter: day at risk -

The Frenchman thus confirmed a talent glimpsed in the hopeful category when he took second place in the 2018 European Championship, behind the Swiss Marc Hirschi.

"It's a good memory even if I was beaten very little", he recalled, he who had prepared for the race by winning a few days earlier a cyclo-sport, L'Etape du Tour.

The first rider of the Cofidis team to win in the Giro since Damien Monier in 2010, Lafay brought to the French team their fifth success of the season, the first at WorldTour level.

But also the third in three days, in a euphoric week for the group led by Cédric Vasseur.

In the final climb of this 170-kilometer stage going from Puglia to Campania via Molise, without affecting the top of the general classification, several climbers lost time on the ramp leading to the finish.

Among others, the Australian Jai Hindley, behind a dozen seconds by the favorites, and the Spaniard Pello Bilbao caught in a fall and pushed back to about thirty seconds.

Sunday, the 9th stage, the most difficult of the first week in theory, comprises three climbs in the Abruzzo massif between Castel di Sangro and Rocca di Cambio (158 km).

Before the final climb (6.6 km) and the last 1600 meters drawn on an unpaved track in the resort of Campo Felice, where Pope John Paul II came to ski on several occasions.

Hungarian Attila Valter runs a great risk of giving up his pink jersey.

Belgian Remco Evenepoel, at 11 seconds, and Colombian Egan Bernal, at 16 seconds, are very close in the standings.

© 2021 AFP