Alex Dowsett, a baby on the way and a triumph to claim

• Eighth stage Classification and times

The peloton still hurts the legs from the heat of Friday, when a stage of very flat route ended up being a save who can at 51 km / h and with the tension of 'fans' forming at any moment.

And they all look to Sunday and observe a day that will be hard on the contrary, because the unevenness is of aúpa and the ascent to Roccaraso awaits, short but tremendously demanding, which can mark substantial differences in the general classification, so open of moment, so beautiful.

And, of course, there is another factor to take into account.

It may be a remote option, but nothing can be ruled out now: What if Sunday's stage was the last?

Because the abandonment by covid of

submerges the Giro in an unknown scenario.

The Briton, who no longer started this Saturday, is the only confirmed positive, no one else from his team has been affected so far, but he has been integrated in a peloton of more than 160 runners in which the distances are , logically, minimal.

What if in the PCR tests on Monday massive contagions surface?

It is worth running Sunday's stage as if it were the last, because it is not entirely out of the question that it is.

So, with all these arguments on the table, the squad decides that what they have to do this Saturday is to recover energy as much as possible.

The Groupama says that

has already had three stages and that he is not going to go deep to find a fourth.

Bora

thinks more about the overall options for

and

and

Sunweb

for

.

And the UAE, given the performance of

, surely does not even consider assuming the work of a stage that can end in the 'sprint'.

By mere commitment

Given the power vacuum of the sprinter teams, it is up to Deceuninck of leader

assume the government of the stage.

But he does so by making it clear that he is doing it out of mere commitment and that he is not going to waste energy trying to neutralize the escape that has formed.

No one else takes command, except when the Trek does so at the Sant'Angelo ascent, midday, to protect

from possible incidents.

This information reaches the escape, made up of second-level cyclists who surely did not trust that their adventure would come to fruition.

and

from Israel,

from Ineos,

from Lotto,

from CCC and

from Androni

make their way together

, cyclists not accustomed to the individual brilliance to which circumstances place them before a unique opportunity in their career sporty.

Everything remains for the final kilometers, of rough terrain, with small slopes that break the monotony of the day.

Puccio, perhaps the best runner in the group, sticks his head out, but he's too controlled.

And in the end, Israel's numerical advantage prevails.

Dowsett launches his attack some 20 kilometers from the goal of Vieste and fills his escape partners with doubts, with his partner Brändle acting as blotting cash.

The most intelligent

One moves, but they all react and then comes the stoppage.

And so on several times until everyone assumes that the stage victory has escaped them, that the smartest, not necessarily the strongest, has been Dowsett, an already veteran time trialist, with a past at Movistar, who had only won one stage. en route in his life, and is overwhelmed by the illusion: "I have no contract for next year and Chanel (his fiancée) and I are expecting a baby in January. I cannot explain how worried I have been this year about what I am going to do. to do the next one. "

Oblivious to Dowsett's victory and his emotional confession, the peloton remains calm and reaches the unified finish almost a quarter of an hour after the stage winner.

Things continue as they were, with Almeida leading and

in second position.

All favorites except Yates keep their options, few or many.

Tomorrow will be another day.

Who knows if the last one.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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