De Gendt rolls back the years to win 8th stage at Giro d’italia
NAPLES: Veteran Belgian rider Thomas De Gendt warned the “old man still has a few tricks” ater winning the Giro d’italia eighth stage around Naples on Saturday with Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez keeping the race leader’s pink jersey.
The 35-year-old Loto rider won a sprint finish 10 years ater his first Giro stage win - which came on the top of the Stelvio when he finished third overall in the race through Italy.
De Gendt pipped three break-away rivals, Italian Davide Gabburo, Spaniard Jorge Arcas and compatriot Harm Vanhoucke ater the 153km ride round the southern city of Naples.
“The old man still has a few tricks,” De Gendt, who has also stage wins in the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, wrote on social media.
“Some time ago, I didn’t think I would win a Grand Tour stage again but here we are.
“I’ve had bad luck and bad shape in the last two years. Today I proved that I’m still able to win races.”
Trek rider Lopez retained the lead he grabbed lasttuesdayonmountetna,witha38-secadvantage on Germany’s Lennard Kamna, riding for Borahansgrohe. Sunday’s 191km ninth stage ends with a summit finish at 1,665m altitude on Blockhaus, in the Abruzzo region.
“It was the plan that if Kamna atacked I had to follow him,” said Lopez. I retained the pink jersey thankstothegreatworkofmyteam-mates.iwillneed a lot of help tomorrow to stay in the lead. We’ll see.”
A breakaway group of 20 runners formed 14km into the race with Mathieu van der Poel accelerating heading into the last 50 km to split the group.
But the Dutchman, closely watched by Eritrean Biniam Girmay and the Swiss Mauro Schmid, had to let a counter-atack of Gabburo, De Gendt, Vanhoucke and Arcas develop a few moments later.
Under the impetus of De Gendt, the leading quartet maintained their lead until the final push to the finish line on the seafront in Naples.
De Gendt’s experience paid off against Gabburo and Arcas, both aged 29.
“I was working for Harm (Vanhoucke) so he could atack on the climb but, at the end, he said we should switch roles,” said the Belgian.
“I was sure I’d win the sprint of the four riders.” The Belgian is one of 21 riders still on the circuit to have won a stage in all three Grand Tour races.
In 2016, he won a chaotic stage on Mont Ventoux in France when Britain’s Chris Froome crashed into a motorcyclist and had to run up the hill while awaiting a new bike.