Benat Intxausti (Movistar) got his moment of glory in today's 8th stage of the Giro d'Italia as he was able to roll down the start ramp clad in the maglia rosa. However, the Spaniard was a hugely disappointing 41st in a discipline in which he usually excels and he dropped down to 14th on a day where he was completely out of energy.

It was a bittersweet day for Movistar in today's Giro d'Italia. The team had started the race with two goals and while they managed to reach of those, their quest to be successful in the other was dealt a heavy blow.

The first objective was to take a stage win and after near-misses in the team time trial and from Giovanni Visconti in stage 4 time trial specialist Alex Dowsett finally took the win that had so far eluded the team. On the other hand the team's hopes of putting Benat Intxausti in the final top 10 in the GC are now much more uncertain that they had been just 24 hours earlier.

At the end of the dramatic stage to Pescara Intxausti had been one of the big winners as he benefited from Luca Paolini's breakdown and Rigoberto Uran's domestique duties to take over the race leader's maglia rosa. Usually a strong time triallist he started today's stage with the firm objective of defending his overall lead and put himself in a good position to achieve his long-term objective of a top 10 finish.

However, the Spaniard had a bad day on the bike and his struggles were exposed to the complete cycling world. As the last rider on the course, all attention was focused on the Movistar captain as he fought hard to limit his losses on the hard climb up to the finish line.

Intxausti did nothing to hide his disappointment but chose to forget today's defeat as soon as possible, instead concentrating on the upcoming battles.

"I would have wanted to be a little bit closer to the front to be honest, but I didn't have my best day on the road, especially through the final 15k," he said. "Until then, things were going well, because the first part of the route suited me well, but then, I started struggling and I couldn't get the body back into proper condition. I was completely out of energy, everybody could see that at the finish - I was empty.

"We'll have to analyse why it happened and come to some conclusions for the future, but I don't want to think of it further right know, because the most important thing at this moment is being recovered for tomorrow, when I want to be within the best again before Monday's rest day, which will do well to all of us surely. I'm extremely happy about Alex's victory - he deserves to win in such a big race. Taking pink yesterday, today's victory... we're on the good path, let's hope it stays like this all the way to Brescia."

Intxausti will need to get back to his best immediately as tomorrow's 9th stage to Firenze is an extremely hilly one. Starting at 14.15 you can follow all the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.