The 8th stage of the Tour of Hainan (Dongfang-Wuzhishan, 204.8 km) was in theory not suitable for the ambitions of Sacha Modolo, who was at the start wearing the yellow jersey as leader of the race.

The course of the queen stage (three 1st category climbs, the summit of the last one at 12.4 km from the finish) was not favourable for the characteristics of the sprinter from LAMPRE-MERIDA, but Modolo exploited the support by his team mates, reached the summit of the first two clims with the bunch and limited the loss to Andrey Zeits (who won the stage) at the top of the last climb, recovering some seconds in the donwhill to the finish.

Modolo crossed the finish line in 24th place at 20" from the winner Zeits, retaining the leadership of the general classification with an advantage of  9" over the Kazakh cyclist. He's also the leader of the points classification.

There were some regrets for his teammate Valerio Conti who joined Zeits in the front positions of the race on the final climb but he crashed, without consequences, in the descent. He obtained 14th place at 7".

"I'm still the leader and this is such an impressive result for me after I was supported by the great work by my team," Modolo explained." I had no problems on the first two climbs, the pace which was set by my team mates was very good for me as it was the rythm on the final hill. I paid attention to not doing extra efforts so I succeeded in limiting the loss at the top of the climb and in still having still energy to recover seconds in the downhill.

“There weren’t many responses to the attacks at the front, so I could just keep my steady pace. When I’m on good form, I can also do well in the climbs. I did today. I kept the commissaire’s car in sight so I knew the gap wasn’t too big. I thought I could regain twenty to thirty seconds in the downhill and that’s what I did.

"I'll be at the start of the final stage wearing the yellow jersey: on the course there will be two 3rd category climbs in the final part of the race which could be potential good place for attacks.

“We never know but I’ve almost won the Tour of Hainan. There’s also the green jersey to defend [with an advantage of six points over Andrea Palini]. That was my initial goal in addition to stage wins. I won’t take as many risks as usual in the sprint tomorrow with the yellow jersey on my shoulders.”