Damiano Cunego had the nerve to attack the main favorites two kilometres from the end of stage 8 of the Giro d’Italia. The Nippo-Fantini leader, who hopes to find his best level, nine years after his victory at the Giro. Before to start the second week, he holds the 14th place at the overall classification, 3 minutes and 10 seconds behind the maglia rosa.

"I’ll have to see. I’ve got good physical condition right now, that’s true, and I could get a decent place on the general classification but we’ll have to evaluate things after the time trial. I could lose a lot of ground there and at that point, I might have to start thinking about stage wins instead of the GC", he explained according to Cyclingnews. "The Giro del Trentino gave me a lot of faith in myself,” he said. “I knew I would go well there, because I’d done 20 days on Mount Etna beforehand and I was well prepared. I missed out on winning a stage but I got a lot of belief from it."

l Piccolo Principe told about the main favorites. "Those guys are very strong, but up to now Saxo and Astana have taken the responsibility every day of working on the front to pull back breaks and they’re using up a lot of energy," he said. "As for me, the more days go by, the more I feel I can express myself because I’m recovering well, and Saturday was maybe a demonstration of that. But the Giro is only just started and the big climbs have yet to come."