Siutsou Takes Another Win for Team Columbia in Giro Stage Eight

Saturday's Stage Eight of the Giro d'Italia had two major headlines.

First, the happier of the two: Konstantin Siutsou showed the dominance and depth of Team Columbia by taking his team's third stage win of the Giro in only eight days.  Yesterday's Columbia winner Edvald Boasson Hagen even came in second place today.

The other story, a sad note, is that Rabobank's Pedro Horillo crashed on the descent of the Culmine di San Pietro, went over the barrier, and fell nearly 200 feet to the bottom of a ravine. A special rescue team had to repel down to the bottom, and the Spaniard was airlifted to the hospital. As of now, he has multiple vertebrae injuries, a punctured lung, and arrived at the hospital in a coma, but he miraculously is still alive.

Today's 209-kilometer stage, the third 200-plus kilometer day in a row, took the riders into the city of Bergamo with two climbs along the way. A breakaway of ten riders tried to make the cut, but never gained ground on the Astana- and Columbia-led peloton, and their chances were over very quickly. 

The race heated up rapidly back in the peloton, however. On the second climb of the day, the Colle del Gallo, pink jersey Danilo DiLuca (of LPR-Brakes) had lost ground on the other favourites, who were in the group up ahead. Seeing this, Astana and Columbia poured on the pressure to drop the pink jersey.

The "Killer," though, used his Giro experience and did not panic despite being more than 30 seconds behind. He made it back up to the main group 10 kilometers later. 

This confusion within the main group allowed for a very choice move 20 kilometers from the finish. Siutsou, who has proven himself in the mountains before, attacked the group with a slim 20-second advantage, held his lead up the final short, cobbled climb to the finish, and took Columbia's third stage win this year and second in a row. 

Teammate Hagen sprinted for second place, while DiLuca, who once looked in trouble, managed third place on the day.

The overall GC remains unchanged today. However, DiLuca's time bonus for finishing third on the day gave him eight additional seconds in the overall that his competitors will have to make up (every day, the stage's first-place rider receives a 20-second bonus, second place a 12-second, and third place an eight-second).

Sunday's Stage Nine completely breaks things up for the riders: They face a 160-kilometer circuit race around the city of Milano, 10 laps of an urban 16K course.  Racing will, as in any criterium or circuit race, be fast, risky, and made for the sprinters.