Kelderman goes to war in stunning transitional stage but monstrous Plapp takes the win, Ulissi grabs the pink jersey

After a week of glory for Mads Pedersen, Thursday finally brought an end to his time in pink. He lost significant time in the tough mountain stage, and Primoz Roglic took over the general classification lead, albeit narrowly, from stage winner Juan Ayuso. Stage eight was no walk in the park either: the hilly ride to Castelraimondo was clearly one for the breakaway. It resulted in a blistering start from Giulianova.

And who else but Pedersen, now in purple, created a gap. He was joined by Davide De Pretto (Jayco-AlUla) and Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal Quick-Step). The trio only had a small lead on the peloton, where Wout van Aert was very active. The Belgian from Visma | Lease a Bike was clearly feeling better than in recent days but failed to make any lasting moves to the front. The trio managed to stay ahead of the guys in pursuit until the intermediate sprint in Roccafluvione.

During that intermediate sprint, Pedersen took the points (unsurprisingly), and took his foot off the throttle after that. That led to a regrouping on the slopes of the Croce di Casale, the first climb of the day. There, a barrage of attacks followed, but no one could really get away. Wilco Kelderman was one of the most successful attackers during that phase: he escaped with Davide Piganzoli (Polti VisitMalta), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), and Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL), among others. But when the group came back together, the Dutchman from Visma attacked again.

It took some time, but Kelderman was clearly the instigator of the day’s decisive breakaway. A large group managed to get away, including Visma teammate Dylan van Baarle, Bardet, Luke Plapp, Koen Bouwman (Jayco-AlUla), Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), Frigo (Israel - Premier Tech), Georg Steinhauser (EF Education - EasyPost), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Diego Ulissi, and King of the Mountains Fortunato (XDS Astana). A lot of strong riders began the climb to Sassotetto, the toughest of the day.

Van Baarle was in great form — that was immediately clear. The former Dutch champion set a hard pace on the climb and immediately dropped some strong names: Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R) and Davide Formolo (Movistar), for example, struggled. The climbers remained, and the lead over the peloton quickly grew. At the top of the climb, the gap was already over five minutes. As expected, Fortunato took maximum points on the climb, even though Bardet tried to steal them. The two pushed on in the descent and were joined by Steinhauser and Vendrame.

After a surge from Marco Frigo, the group came back together — or at least what was left of it: around ten riders. But Kelderman wasn’t done yet. The Dutchman attacked again, this time with Steinhauser, Arrieta, Plapp, Vendrame, Bardet, and Ulissi. A strong group of seven formed, and the pace behind dropped off: the gap had been struck. Then Kelderman attacked again. He was hunting for his first ever road stage win, and this time broke away with Ulissi.

On the Montelago climb, Arrieta and Plapp bridged up. The last long climb was a prime moment for climber Kelderman to test the rest, but it was Plapp who launched a blistering attack near the summit. Spinning a big gear, he left the rest behind with ease and extended his lead on the descent. Known for his excellent time-trialing skills, the all-rounder powered through the rolling roads toward the finish.

The three chasers cooperated well, but the Australian rider from Jayco-AlUla increased the gap to over a minute. The final stretch was brutally hard, with typical Muri — the short, steep hills so characteristic of Italy. Arrieta tried to close the gap solo but went too hard too early. He was caught again by Kelderman and Ulissi. The Italian from Astana was also in a battle with teammate Fortunato: both still had a shot at the pink jersey.

It came down to a coin toss for the pink jersey. Ulissi worked hard and dropped Arrieta on the final muro. Kelderman stayed close. But Plapp had taken off. The lone leader dove into the final descent toward Castelraimondo and claimed the greatest win of his career. Kelderman then beat Ulissi in the sprint, though Ulissi still held hope of taking the race lead.

Among the favorites, things kicked off again on the final muro. Tom Pidcock attacked, and Juan Ayuso responded immediately. Race leader Roglic remained calm and didn’t let himself get surprised. After the summit of the last climb, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe eased off the pace, which allowed Ulissi to take over the pink jersey after all. In the twilight of his career, he became the Giro d’Italia GC leader for the first time.