Michael Storer holds onto main group on Prati di Tivo despite long breakaway: "I hoped to be lucky today, because you never know"

Michael Storer was one of those escapees in the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia who hoped to leap forward in the GC while fighting for the stage win on Prati di Tivo. Frankly, Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates had different idea and never allowed the breakaway to get a significant lead. Thus the stage was decided between the main favourites.

Storer himself held on in the front group quite nicely, arriving 9th on the day, only 13 seconds behind stage winner Pogacar. This results comes with a well-deserved move up the overall ranking for the Tudor Pro Cycling leader, who sits in 12th place, one second behind 11th Alexey Lutsenko after eight days of racing.

"I hoped that UAE would give us a little more space, but unfortunately," Storer told Eurosport. "It was also a shame that no one had a teammate who completely exhausted himself for the other. That was strange, because there were teams with several riders at the front. I hoped to be lucky today, because you never know."

"In the end I lost little energy and I also rode reservedly," the Australian puts things into perspective. "I quickly understood that the breakaway would not make it. I also started with a small lead on the Prati di Tivo and that was nice. The forty seconds allowed me to maintain a steady pace until we got caught. That way I could save some strength."

The Tudor rider also sheds light on the control of UAE Emirates. "There was a lot of headwind today and there was no full commitment from the men in the breakaway. UAE just rode at their own pace and at the front we were actually riding quite slowly. If we had a few more men who really wanted to race fast, we could have progressed further."