Guardia Sanframondi (Italy) (AFP)
French victory on the Giro: Victor Lafay (Cofidis) won solo the 8th stage of the Giro d'Italia cyclist, Saturday, in Guardia Sanframondi, and opened his prize list among professionals.
Hungarian Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) kept the pink jersey on the eve of the summit finish in Campo Felice, in Abruzzo.
Lafay left his breakaway companions 3 kilometers from the finish to win with around 30 seconds over the Italian Francesco Gavazzi and the German Nikias Arndt.
Lafay, who is 25, gave the Cofidis team their first success since Damien Monier in 2010.
The Savoyard, professional since 2019, won the silver medal at the European U21 Championships in 2018, behind the Swiss Marc Hirschi.
The stage victory was played between the nine members of a breakaway (Oliveira, Gougeard, Lafay, Carboni, Gavazzi, Arndt, Gaviria, Goossens, Campenaerts) formed at the 54th kilometer, after a very lively start and a first hour marked by the abandonment of the Australian Caleb Ewan.
The peloton, with the pink jersey and the favorites, crossed the line with a delay approaching five minutes.
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.
© 2021 AFP