Navaez breakaway stage winner

 

Despite having only five riders in the race, UAE placed Jhonatan Narvaez to win stage 8 from the breakaway. That’s three stage wins in a week, it is the Ecuadorian’s second stage victory of this year’s race, with Narvaez making his race-winnning move with 9.8km to go. Narvaez used his powerful luck to dispatch Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), who had joined Narvaez and Mikkel Bjeg (UAE) in a remarkable long-range breakaway. 

“I think in the end it was about the legs, if you see the first part, it was full headwind, and riding the flat in the headwind was really hard for me. I think we never give up. At 60km to go, we think, ‘we ride smart, and then we have the opportunity to go for the stage. 

For sure, it is important for me, even coming from the injury in January. We have only five guys, but we play well, we play smart, there is a great atmosphere in the team, so I think there are still more victories for us in the next weeks.”

-Jhonatan Narvaez