"A lot better than yesterday, night and day" - Geraint Thomas regains some belief with solid stage 8 showing at Giro d'Italia

Another stage at the 2024 Giro d'Italia and another suffocating performance by Tadej Pogacar. Geraint Thomas was fifth on the day, and although his Maglia Rosa ambitions now look long, the Welshman is still very much in the fight for the podium.

"We thought the breakaway would have a good chance. We wanted to get Jhonatan Narvaez and Magnus Sheffield in there, which we did and that was good," Thomas reflects post-stage to Eurosport. Sadly for the INEOS Grenadiers and the rest of the peloton, Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates were not allowing anyone else to pick up any scraps.

"UAE set a good tempo on the climb so it didn't get out of control for them and I don't know if they decided to go for the stage from the beginning but they certainly decided and we knew that," he continues. "For me, it was a lot better than yesterday, night and day. Confidence wise I just to sit in, do today and then move on."

"In the end, I felt really comfy actually, I was quite surprised because people were getting dropped and that's always a good sign I guess. In the sprint I got a little bogged down but I didn't have the legs to sprint with those guys," he concludes, having lost a few more seconds to Daniel Martinez in the battle for 2nd place. "I said to Thymen Arensman that they'd ride a solid tempo, Rafal Majka will pull as long as he can and that's what happened... Hats off to them today, they really pulled it out to set it up and then Tadej does what he does."