Victory Lafay (Cofidis) was the surprise winner on stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia after a late attack on the final climb netted the Frenchman his first professional win and end his team's long drought in the Italian Grand Tour.
Lafay attacked with around 3km to go on the last climb, cutting through the remnants of the break that had originally included Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Kobe Goossens (Lotto Soudal), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R Citroën), Victor Campanaerts (Qhubeka Assos), Nikias Arndt (Team DSM), Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane), Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo-Kometa) and Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates).
It looked as though the win would be decided between Carboni and Campanaerts when the duo slipped clear just before the final climb, but Lafay, racing in just his second Grand Tour, bridged up to the leaders before dropping them near the line.
In the race for the maglia rosa, Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) retained his slim advantage over Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep). However, the stage also saw Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) leave the race. The Australian sprinter, who already won two stages in this year's Giro d'Italia, was dropped during a frantic opening two hours as the break struggled to form. He was unable to regain contact with the main field with his team later stating that he was suffering from a knee injury.
Check above for the video highlights of stage 8 at the Giro d'Italia.
