Thomas De Gendt won the eighth stage in the Giro d’Italia on Saturday. In a spectacular hill stage, the Belgian was the strongest of a leading group. Mathieu van der Poel just came up short and finished seventh.

The 35-year-old De Gendt stayed well ahead of the Italian Davide Gabburo (second), the Spaniard Jorge Arcas (third) and his compatriot Harm Vanhoucke (fourth) in the sprint of the leading group of four.

Van der Poel came very close to the leaders in the final, but eventually finished seventh in fifteen seconds. Wout Poels, who was also part of a big early flight, finished eighth after just over half a minute.

For De Gendt it is his second stage win in a Giro. Ten years ago, the Lotto Soudal rider triumphed on the Stelvio and finally finished third in the general classification. He also recorded his first win since March last year, when he won a stage in the Tour of Catalonia.

Juan Pedro López kept his lead in the general classification. The Spaniard is 38 seconds ahead of the German Lennard Kämna. Guillaume Martin, who was also one of the escapees, climbs to fourth place in the standings. Koen Bouwman, who won the seventh stage on Friday, remains leader in the mountains classification.

The Giro will head back into the mountains on Sunday. The ninth stage leads the riders over 191 kilometers from Isernia to the Blockhaus.

Van der Poel colors stage

The eighth stage took the peloton over 153 kilometers to and from Naples. There was only one categorized ascent of the fourth category along the way, but it went up and down all day in the south of Italy.

Immediately after the start, Mathieu van der Poel jumped out of the pack and got twenty riders with him. Among them were Poels, De Gendt, Diego Ulissi, Martin and Biniam Girmay. For a long time the group had a small lead of three minutes.

At 46 kilometers from the finish it was not going fast enough for Van der Poel, after which he decided to attack. The Dutchman did not get any space from his fellow refugees, after which De Gendt, Vanhoucke, Gabburo, Simone Ravanelli and Arcas managed to make a hole.

The quintet took a forty second lead, although Ravanelli was unable to keep up with the pace moments later. The difference narrowed slightly when Van der Poel rode away from the chasing group on a climb. The leader of Alpecin-Fenix ​​got Poels, Martin, Girmay and Mauro Schmid with him.

The leading group of four worked well together, but it remained exciting until the final. At 3 kilometers from the finish, Van der Poel and Girmay jumped away from the chasing group. They came very close to the front runners, but just fell short. In the streets of Naples, De Gendt was by far the strongest in the sprint.