Victor Lafay, the first Cofidis rider to raise his arms to the Giro since 2010. – Luca Bettini / AFP
French victory on the Giro: Victor Lafay (Cofidis) won solo the 8th stage of the Giro d’Italia cyclist, Saturday, in Guardia Sanframondi, and opened its list of professionals. Hungarian Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) kept the pink jersey on the eve of the summit finish in Campo Felice, in Abruzzo.
Cofidis had been waiting for this victory for a while
Lafay left his breakaway companions 3 kilometers from the finish to win with around 30 seconds ahead of the Italian Francesco Gavazzi and the German Nikias Arndt. Lafay, who is 25, gave the Cofidis team their first success since Damien Monier in 2010.
# Giro104 🇮🇹 / French victory with Lafay who won the Guardia Sanframondi alone! Eleven years since Cofidis had not won on the Giro.
🏁 Step 8
🏆 🇫🇷 Victor Lafay (COF)
2⃣ 🇮🇹 Francesco Gavazzi (EOK) at 36 “
3⃣ 🇩🇪 Nikias Arndt (DSM) at 37 “pic.twitter.com/bEbrtBiWIR– Cycling Chronicle (@ChroniqueDuVelo) May 15, 2021
The Savoyard, professional since 2019, won the silver medal at the European U21 Championships in 2018, behind the Swiss Marc Hirschi. The stage victory was played between the nine members of a breakaway (Oliveira, Gougeard, Lafay, Carboni, Gavazzi, Arndt, Gaviria, Goossens, Campenaerts) formed at the 54th kilometer, after a very lively start and a first hour marked by lAustralian Caleb Ewan retires. The peloton, with the pink jersey and the favorites, crossed the line with a delay approaching five minutes.