As we move to the latter stages of the Volta the sprinters can start to eye up the chance of stage victory, though today is certainly not without its complications with a late little climb.
Not really one for a GC assault mind you and plenty of teams will have the big Alta da Torre climb in their thoughts. Young Cieran Cassidy of Vespa decides to give this one a lone go.
Young Vespa rider goes on a solo move
This opens up the chance of KOM points for some contenders in that competition as noone else tries to break clear. It is Santander's under pressure climber Lopez Garcia who nabs second place behind Cassidy ahead of Kohl and Bosisio.
Lopez Garcia moves to 50 points
Siutsou leads this one on 62 points, with Pellizotti on 58 points and now Lopez Garcia moves into 3rd on 50 ahead of points jersey joint leader Eltink on 49. This climb gives the chance though for two riders to slip away in pursuit of Cassidy namely Selander (Quiksilver) and Kunitski (Intesa).
Two riders nip off in pursuit
Cassidy continues to ride strong though maintaining a decent gap between himself and the chasing two. The peleton seem disinterested in chasing this properly too, could this be the day the hare outlasts the hounds. 75 to go Cassidy has 3.30 on the chasers and 9.19 on the peleton.
The Irish hare keeps on rolling
Lopez Garcia romps out of the pack for the single point on offer at the 2nd KOM - ahead of Bernard Kohl. Warming up or a waste of energy?
Lopez Garcia moves to 51 KOM points
With 25 to go it is becoming clear that in addition to all the primes Cassidy has a great shot at stage glory. He started this morning over 25 minutes back, so no real chance of making waves on GC. However the chasers are making some ground on the youngster. The gap there is under two minutes with the peleton at 10.25.
However the pace of the peleton gets higher on the climb and it is Bernard Kohl who takes the only point on offer for them behind the breakaway.
Kohl takes the single point - a pointer to form ahead of stage 10's big battle?
The gaps start to dramatically reduce it is clear the lactic is starting to burn for all three front runners. The gaps at 12km to go were 1.15 between Cassidy and the chasers and 6.14 back to the speeding peleton. Cassidy is quite relieved to get over the climb and is on the downhill, maybe he can keep the time loss to a minimum here?
Cassidy desperate to hold on to his form
The gaps continue to reduce but Cieran Cassidy can see with 1km left that he is going to do it, he zips up his jersey and punches the air in delight.
Cassidy takes stage 8 of the Volta
Behind this the peleton are raging for the podium places but Selander can hold on to register a decent second place.
Selander takes second
Kunistki even holds on for third but not by much over the likes of Borrajo and Richeze. Daniel Moreno of Benfica is the highest maroon shirted man and he actually takes the points jersey lead.
Kuniski takes third from the sprinters
Forty one seconds was all that Cassidy ended up with losing nearly 10 minutes in the last 25km but he held on to register a memorable win.
