UAE Emirates-XRG showed it is turning the page after a catastrophic start to the Giro d\u2019Italia, with Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez picking up the team\u2019s third victory in eight stages on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Ecuadorian champ slowed off his climbing talents in the tough finale of the stage to Fermo, shedding breakaway companions Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) plus his own UAE teammate Mikkel Bjerg inside 11km to go.<\/p>\n
Leknessund did what he could to stick the pace but faded on terrain that simply didn\u2019t suit him as well as his rival. The Norwegian eventually trailed in 32 seconds back. His teammate Martin Tj\u00f8tta surged out of the chase group to nab third.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a nice stage for me,\u201d Narv\u00e1ez said. \u201cThe first part was really difficult but I think we played well with my teammate. I think he was the man of the day, Mikkel Bjerg. He is always working for the team. Normally you never see him initiate on television, but he is a guy who does a lot for the team.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe did an agreement, I can say now, but he was the man of the day for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move sparked off inside the final 78km and saw the trio fend off a hard-chasing pursuit behind.<\/p>\n
Narv\u00e1ez\u2019s victory was another important one for the UAE Emirates-XRG team, who saw GC contender Adam Yates, Jay Vine and Marc Soler leave the race in recent days.<\/p>\n
Narv\u00e1ez previously won stage 4, while teammate Igor Arrieta triumphed the following day. The GC challenge has evaporated but the fighting spirit is remains strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are just five guys but we play well. We play smart,\u201d Narv\u00e1ez said. \u201cWe have a good atmosphere in team. So I think still [more] victories in the next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Two national champions, one stage winner<\/h2>\nThe key breakaway forms, with Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) chasing UAE Emirates-XRG duo Mikkel Bjerg and Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Stage 8 of the Giro d\u2019Italia was another summit finish, although it was a less testing finale than Friday\u2019s showdown on Blockhaus. It was mostly flat for the first 100km, with the race being peppered with category three and four climbs after that.<\/p>\n
Bjerg and Narv\u00e1ez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) went clear with Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) with 76km remaining. The latter wasn\u2019t optimistic at first that he could do anything on the stage.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI was active in the start to get in the break and then at some point I said to the guys \u2018I think I will give up, there is no one going to get away with this headwind. it is so easy to follow,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut somehow I got away with Bjerg and Narv\u00e1ez. It was so hard to get the gap and get up to one minute or something, then we cooperated well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulling strongly together, the trio were three and a half minutes ahead of the peloton heading for 20km to go. With a big chase group unable to make any inroads it was increasingly clear that one of the those out front would win.<\/p>\n
Narv\u00e1ez was the most recognized climber and began turning the screw inside 12km to go. This dropped Bjerg and then Leknessund. While the latter did take some time back on the descent, a 12 second gap with 3.5km to go started to go in the other direction on the wall-like climb towards the finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end it was about the legs,\u201d Narv\u00e1ez said.<\/p>\n
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Leknessund saw it the same way. \u201cHe was stronger in the end. Kind of as expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind, maglia rosa<\/em> Alfonso Eul\u00e1lio attacked on the final climb in a bid to pad his advantage over Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane contained the Bahrain-Victorious rider and also did the same when former Giro champion Jai Hindley launched a move inside the tough final kilometer.<\/p>\n
Eul\u00e1lio conceded two seconds but is still 3:15 ahead of Vingegaard before Sunday\u2019s summit finish at Corno alle Scale. Given the severity of the final climb, though, his ongoing race leadership is far from certain.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275943488.jpg”] Shane Stokes Updated May 16, 2026 10:04AM UAE Emirates-XRG showed it is turning the page after a catastrophic start to the Giro d\u2019Italia, with Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez picking up the team\u2019s third victory in eight stages on Saturday. The Ecuadorian champ slowed off his climbing talents in the tough finale of the stage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1939644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1939644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1939644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1939644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1939644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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