Giro d'Italia 2023 Stage 8 LIVE - Ben Healy takes flight on steep slopes to make an audacious solo dash for glory

The breaker's work is starting to pay off, with their advantage having grown to almost 20 seconds. The roads are too wide for any team to impose a barrage but as the matches burn down there are going to be a lot of riders longing for this to be knocked on the head. Maybe it'll come after the intermediate sprint - we're less than 10km from the line at Foligno.

180KM TO GO: TWO BOYS IN BLUE LOOK TO BRIDGE

Samuele Battistella of Astana, and Eolo-Kometa's Erik Fetter team up to try to catch our head quartet. I like it when rider's names rhyme with their teams. I can't think of any other examples right now, but expect more.

This race is still to settle down, even after 30km of riding.

187KM TO GO: WHO'S IN OUR FRONT FOUR?

Valentin Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen)
Ben Healy (EF Education EasyPost)
Derek Gee (Israel PremierTech)
Carlos Verona (Movistar)

The four are working very hard to maintain just a handful of seconds of advantage. The race has averaged 47kph for the first half an hour - that's very high considering how much climbing we've had.

190KM TO GO: JUMBO VISMA CAUGHT NAPPING

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep) snuck into the first, larger split obliging the Dutch team to ride like fury to reconnect the two halves. That inevitably provokes another attack from riders at the front. This is a long way from being done yet, and it's difficult to see when and how it might happen.

About twenty or so riders have made it into the front group, which occurred just ahead of the descent, and there appears to be some serious names up there. There's a smaller group of four just ahead of the larger split, including your man Ben Healy.

Halfway up the climb, right on the steepest section, and it's severely stretching but refusing to snap. Samuele Zoccarato (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) is struggling off the back of the bunch. Could be a long old day for him if he can't regain contact before the top of the climb.

Trek-Segafredo are an ever-present at the front, as are Astana. EF Education-EasyPost have also made multiple efforts early on. Ben Healy is looking especially livel - I count three good digs from him.

Neither full-throated but both hard enough to stretch things out. The Israel Premier Tech rider wants to see who's interested, and he draws out a couple of players from Bardiani, Jayco, Groupama FDJ and others. Brandon McNulty isn't going to be allowed anywhere, so I'm not sure what he's doing.

As the group gets bigger even the maglia rosa of Andreas Leknessund fancies a bit of it. Reactions required and so they follow.

Another long neutralised rollout, then straight onto the unclassified Valico della Somma. The climb consists of 440 uphill metres, over about 10 horizontal ones, that plenty of teams will have prepared for. Who's been warming up on the rollers this morning?

Skinsuits aplenty at the front of the bunch, as the riders swarm the director's car. We're anticipating a big - and potentially very long - fight for the break on this uphill start.

A massive blow for Tao Geoghegan Hart and Geraint Thomas as the hour record holder is forced to withdraw from the race.

Saluti! And welcome to live coverage from stage 8 of the 2023 Giro d'Italia. Was yesterday a bit of a damp squib? Tell that Davide Bais and Karel Vacek. The road to Gran Sasso may not have been paved with excitement but for three riders it provided an experience that will live in their memories forever, and that they could only have dreamed of six hours earlier.

Before yesterday afternoon the best result for Bais was 8th place in the lowly rated Coppa Bernocchi. Now he's a Grand Tour stage winner.

That was yesterday, though. Today the Giro marches on, 207km from Terni to Fossombrone, a three star hilly stage taking in some of the most beautiful scenery in Italy. The riders won't have time for that, though. The dramatic terrain also promises racing of the highest, most unpredictable caliber. The parcours presents plentiful opportunities to attack, and the likes of Ineos Grenadiers and Jumbo Visma will be looking to isolate Remco Evenepoel given the slightest chance, before maybe delivering a crushing blow on one of the late final climbs. 207km - expect every one of them to be raced.