Long-range Luke Plapp! Aussie ace takes first World Tour win with stunning solo on stage 8 of 2025 Giro d'Italia

Team Jayco AlUla Luke Plapp has sensationally soloed to the victory as the breakaway prevailed on stage 8 of the 2025 Giro d'Italia. Attacking from the breakaway around 50km from the line, the Australian held on all the way for a famous win.

The trio of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal - Quick-Step) and Davide de Pretto (Team Jayco AlUla) got out ahead of the race early. The majority of the peloton wasn't content with this break though, and an almighty fight to reignite the breakaway battle ensued at the front of the peloton for more than 40km. Given that Pedersen and co were still clear by the time the first intermediate sprint of the day was reached though, the Dane promptly took maximum points to increase his lead in the Maglia Ciclamino classification.

On the first climb of the day, Pedersen, Cattaneo and De Pretto were caught by the chasing peloton, and phase 2 of the breakaway fight began with over 50km and more than an hour of racing in the legs.

The next attack to get a proper gap at the front saw a six man group of Davide Piganzoli, Nairo Quintana, Louis Meintjes, Wilco Kelderman, Romain Bardet and Alessandro Tonelli break free. With 125km to go, they were caught and the whole breakaway battle restarted once again.

Before the foot of the Cat 1 Sassotetto, a 20-rider strong group finally got properly clear, building a lead of over one minute on the peloton. Given the big number of the group though, the cohesion wasn't the best, with attacks continuing at the front of the race. Best placed of those out front GC wise was Lorenzo Fortunato, with the Astana star also donning the Maglia Azzurra as leader of the King of the Mountains classification.

On the climb, the break of the break then formed, with the strongest of the attackers proving to be the aforementioned Fortunato, Dylan van Baarle, Marco Frigo, Davide Formolo, Georg Steinhauser, Luke Plapp, Damien Howson, Romain Bardet, Wilco Kelderman, Nicolas Prodhomme, Manuele Tarozzi and Igor Arrieta.

Behind, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe were setting a calm pace at the front of the peloton, seemingly content to let the break take the day. With around 99km to go, the gap between break and bunch reached three minutes, meaning Fortunato was also now the provisional Maglia Rosa. At the top of the climb, Fortunato also secured maximum KOM points, outsprinting Bardet.

On the descent, Fortunato and Bardet continued to put the hammer down at the front, drawing clear Steinhauser and Andrea Vendrame, who had returned to the front after having been dropped by initial accelerations, in a new 4-man lead group, although they were quickly brought back by the rest of the break once they reached the flat. The peloton meanwhile was 5 minutes back down the road at this point, meaning Fortunato was looking good for two jerseys on the post-stage podium.

Suddenly though, the dynamic changed completely once again moments later. The next attack to get separation at the front saw Fortunato's Astana teammate Diego Ulissi among 7 riders that snapped the elastic to the remainder of the break and in the process, took control of the provisional Maglia Rosa for himself.

Once again, things weren't calm for long as Ulissi and Kelderman broke free of the lead group on the lower slopes of the Montelago. By the top of the climb though, they had been rejoined by UAE youngster Arrieta and former Australian national champion Plapp. Not wasting any time in the wheels, Plapp actually attacked again before the summit, taking maximum KOM points and starting the descent solo.

As Plapp extended his lead out front, things started to come closer together behind, meaning Fortunato regained the advantage in the race for the Maglia Rosa ahead of his Astana teammate Ulissi. Inside the final 20km, Arrieta attacked clear of the chase and began hunting down Plapp. The Australian was holding firm up ahead though, still more than a minute clear as he reached the 10km to go marker, with Arrieta's attack having been nullified by Ulissi and Kelderman.

The fight for the Maglia Rosa meanwhile, was getting incredibly close between Ulissi and Fortunato, with the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe led peloton not totally out of the picture of ensuring that Primoz Roglic kept the race lead either.

There was no doubt about the stage win though, as Luke Plapp kept himself in control all the way to the line to seal the biggest win of his pro career to date.