Results Giro d'Italia stage 8 - Jhonatan Narváez takes third win for UAE as GC stalemate rules over Fermo summit finish

Stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia was a very fast day on the bike and UAE Team Emirates - XRG, despite having only five riders in the race, put in a stellar performance to launch Jhonatan Narváez into the the stage win from the breakaway.

A day where there was a wide assumption that a breakaway would succeed, but without the climbs for it to truly go up the road, it became a fierce fight to form one. The average speed on the day was incredibly high, fruit of the first 100 kilometers that were raced at full speed on what were virtually all pan-flat roads.

Filippo Ganna and Alberto Bettiol held a gap for a long amount of time, but closely chased by a peloton where dozens of riders were trying to create a gap to the peloton. At a certain point, the peloton split, with race leader Afonso Eulálio and Jai Hindley in a group of around 40 riders; whilst Visma were forced to chase for Jonas Vingegaard to return to the front.

Eventually, amidst this split, three riders escaped the front group: Mikkel Bjerg, Jhonatan Narváez and Andreas Leknessund. The trio did not have a large margin at any point over the peloton, but it was enough to enter the first climb of the day with a gap. As soon as the road began to climb, dozens of riders attacked off the peloton and the race calmed down.

Giulio Ciccone tried escaping, directly covered by Eulálio, but afterwards the pace slowed down with Visma and Bahrain in control of the race. About 30 riders formed a chasing group which was about 1 minute behind the front trio. The likes of Igor Arrieta, Christian Scaroni, Markel Beloki, Jan Christen and Johannes Kulset would be in position to benefit on the overall classification from it.

But to close the gap to the front riders would not be happening. In fact the opposite would be happening. Javier Romo attacked and tried bridging across, unsuccessfully. Bjerg did a great share of the work in front and on the penultimate climb of the day Narváez launched two attacks. On the second, the Ecuadorian - winner of stage 4 already - managed to distance Andreas Leknessund.

On the final climb to Fermo, he held firm on the ramps that went up to 22%, and took UAE Team Emirates - XRG's third stage win. Leknessund held on to second place whilst it was his teammate Martin Tjotta who rode to third place from behind.

In the peloton Visma put in a strong pace throughout the last few climbs, keeping Vingegaard in front. Afonso Eulálio himself attacked with 1.5 kilometers, but the GC men remained conservative on the hardest parts of the final climb. Jai Hindley launched an early sprint which caused some minor splits, but there haven't been any meaningful gaps at the finish line.