Giro d'Italia 2014 - Stage 8

The 2014 Giro d'Italia entered the Apennines on stage eight, with the first summit finish where major time gaps could be expected. The race travelled 179 kilometres from Foligno to Montecopiolo. The race was one rider lighter than when it finished stage seven, Orica-GreenEDGE lost stage hunter Cameron Meyer to a viral infection.

A huge breakaway unsurprisingly went up the road after around thirty kilometres of jostling. Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky was in the move on his birthday and national Norway day, he was joined by the likes of Trek's Julian Arredondo, Julien Berard of AG2R La Mondiale, Eduard Vorganov of Team Katusha and Stefano Pirazzi of Bardiani-CSF, among others.

Boasson Hagen won the intermediate sprint unchallenged to take a well deserved birthday present, and the break worked well together across the flatter terrain before the real mountains started. Once the first climb started, the Cippo di Cardegna, Stefano Pirazzi increased the pace, soon dropping the weaker climbers in the breakaway.

The maglia rosa Michael Matthews was quickly out the back and pedalling squares as the peloton increased their pace up the climb. His fellow Australian Cadel Evans had become the race leader on the road. With just under fourty kilometres to, Arredondo attacked the breakaway, and was soon alone, leaving whoever wanted to chase him in his wake.

Stefano Pirazzi was the man foremost in the attempts to do this, when Team Europcar's Pierre Rolland attacked the peloton on the descent. He soon got a good gap, and Arredondo had just over a minute to the Frenchman. Rolland kept chasing Arredondo, and on the final climb was closing in. However, the peloton were also closing in under the impetus of AG2R La Mondiale. 

Rolland caught Arredondo within the final kilometre, but the peloton closed them down, and Katusha's Daniel Moreno jumped in the last 500 metres. He died away early, and was countered by Robert Kiserlovski, and then Diego Ulissi who passed the Croatian champion to take his second win of this year's Giro d'Italia. Cadel Evans by virtue of finishing with the front group inherited the maglia rosa from his countryman Michael Matthews.