FOSSOMBRONE, Italy: Ben Healy of Education First pulled off a long-range breakaway to win stage eight of the Giro d’Italia on Saturday, as race favorite Remco Evenepoel came under pressure.
The 22-year-old Irishman dropped his three breakaway companions on the day’s hardest climb, the Monte Delle Cesane, to take his first ever world tour victory in style.
“I had great legs and nobody could follow me, so it was a great day,” said Healy, who has broken through this year coming second to Tadej Pogacar in April’s Amstel Gold Race.
Drama unfolded in the overall race as three-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic attacked Evenepoel around 5km from the line.
While Roglic managed to drop Evenepoel, Ineos pair Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart also skipped past the Belgian as the trio managed to trim his advantage in the standings by about 15 seconds.
While Evenepoel at first managed to keep pace with Roglic he soon stopped trying, almost certainly keeping his powder dry for his preferred time-trial flat terrain on Sunday’s stage nine.
World champion Evenepoel had come under criticism overnight for having returned to his hotel from an Apennine peak by helicopter after Friday’s six hour stage seven.
Norway’s Andreas Leknessund retained the overall lead eight seconds ahead of Evenepoel while Roglic climbed to third at 38 seconds.
Other fancied riders Joao Almeida and Damiano Caruso kept pace and Ineos pair Thomas and Hart seemed to have brushed off the overnight loss of teammate Filippo Ganna, who has Covid.
Leknessund is almost certain to lose his pink overall jersey on Sunday when the Giro stages its second of three individual time trials, a 35km run to Cesena.
The total length of the three individual time trials on this Giro is 73km, which is huge by any standards and lends Evenepoel enough advantage for the Quick Step rider to choose the Giro over the Tour de France this season.
The peloton gets its first rest day on Monday before two mountain and three hilly stages in week two with the race veering into Switzerland where the Crans Montana and the Col du Grand Saint Bernard at 2469m altitude await any pretender to this 106th Giro.
Ireland’s Healy solos to Giro triumph as Evenepoel wobbles
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Ireland’s Healy solos to Giro triumph as Evenepoel wobbles
- Drama unfolded in the overall race as three-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic attacked Evenepoel around 5km from the line
Marmoush, Salah strike as Egypt edge out holders Ivory Coast in quarter-final
- Egypt wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute
- That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance
AGADIR, Morocco: Omar Marmoush netted the opener and Mohamed Salah scored the decisive goal as Egypt ended Ivory Coast’s reign with a narrow 3-2 triumph in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.
Center back Rami Rabia was the other scorer for the Egyptians, who had little possession at the Grande Stade Agadir but took their chances with clinical precision and held on grimly to book a semifinal meeting with Senegal on Wednesday.
An own goal from Ahmed Fatouh and a late effort by Guela Doue proved insufficient for the Ivory Coast, winners of the tournament on home soil two years ago but now deposed as African champions.
Egypt, who have won a record seven Cup of Nations titles, wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute after Hamdi Fathy pinched the ball from Franck Kessie in the midfield, allowing Emam Ashour to thread a pinpoint ball to the sprinting Marmoush. He still needed to shrug off the attentions of defender Odilon Kossounou before slotting home.
But it quickly became clear the Ivorians were going to dominate possession, showing much more physical strength on the ball but without setting up clear chances.
Egypt went 2-0 up in the 32nd minute when Rabia rose above the defenders to head his side further ahead from a corner.
The Ivory Coast, who had 70 percent of possession in the first half, reduced the deficit eight minutes later when teenager Yann Diomande’s freekick near the corner took a slight brush off Kossounou’s head and ricocheted off the knee of full back Fatouh and into the net.
SALAH FINISHED OFF CLEVER MOVE
The Ivorians had come from 2-0 down to beat Gabon 3-2 earlier in the tournament but hopes of turning the scoreline around soon after the re-start were stymied by a simply created, but superbly finished, goal for Salah seven minutes after the break.
Rabia was well inside his own half when he chipped the ball over the top of the Ivorian defensive line, allowing Ashour to run onto it and hit an accurate pass with the outside of his right boot into the path of Salah to score.
An Ivorian comeback was still on when Doue touched home at the end of a goalmouth scramble in the 73rd minute.
That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance.
Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria overpowered Algeria 2-0 in Marrakech and will take on hosts Morocco in the other semifinal.
