The first high mountain stage of the Giro d' Italia, the 186-kilometer stage eight, began in Fiuggi and finished at the top of the category one climb to Campitello Matese, a punishing uphill of 13 kilometers.

It was a stage where Trek Factory Racing was not expected to play, but Kristof Vandewalle decided there was little to lose when he jumped into a large chase group in the early part of the race, then later bridged from the group to the three men leading the race.

Although he was eventually caught on the long, punishing finish climb, it was a strong show from a rider more attuned to shorter hills.

“Actually it was not planned to go in a breakaway today because of the mountain finish,”explained Vandewalle. “Tomorrow we have a much better chance to fight for the win, but I felt good. If the climb was less hard at the end I am pretty sure I could have fought for the win.”

After Vandewalle successfully bridged to the three leaders, Franco Pellizotti (Androni Giocattoli -Sidermec) pulled the plug from the quartet to wait for the shelter of the larger group, leaving Vandewalle with Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Carlos Betancur (AG2R-La Mondiale) to forge on ahead.  The peloton was over eight minutes back and beginning a hard chase to cut the gap to the breakaway.

It appeared the chasing group would latch to the trio, but after they crept to within 15 seconds a lack of cooperation allowed Vandewalle et al to stretch their lead again. 

With Vandewalle's strong time trialing ability, the trio increased the gap to 90 seconds over the chasers as they started the final mountain climb to the finish, with the peloton over five minutes in arrears.

Vandewalle explained how the day unfolded:

“It was a really hard stage and the start was just crazy. The peloton split on a little climb 20 kilometers in.  I was the only one for the team in the front, and I felt good and just decided to follow if there was a big group. The first group of 20 Tinkoff-Saxo did not let go until we finally had a group of 12 guys.

“But the problem was Niemiec of Lampre Merida was there and he was too close in the GC and so there was a lot of complaining in our group. Kruijswijk was still in the front leading and two guys bridged to him on the climb, and then I had to make a decision whether to stay in the big group, which was not working well together or go on my own. After the descent, I decided to try and make the bridge to the three guys and in the valley I closed a gap of I think one minute.  It went well with us four and then in one moment Pellizotti was gone, it was strange – I think he went back to the big group.

“The group was never far behind and I was with real climbers going into the last climb, which was very hard, but I felt good. I saw that Betancur was not riding well, and so I just went my own speed and tried to keep Kruijswijk in sight. I was hoping he might slow down, and I would have a chance for the win, but then when the others strong climbers came from behind, okay, it was done. Then the morale is gone and it was just a matter to get to the top and finish the stage.”

Benat Intxausti (Movistar) won the stage as he attacked out of the chasing group, catching and passing Vandewalle with five kilometers to go, then Kruijswijk a short while later.   

After a hard day in the breakaway, Vandewalle came across the line in 24th place (+1’57”).

Meanwhile the GC favorites closely eyed one another further behind until, in a repeat of the first summit finish of stage five, they launched fierce attacks all the way to the line, but once again were unable to shed any member of their select group.

The top three in the GC remain unchanged as Alberto Contador continues to lead the race.