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Irishman Ben Healy won the eighth stage of the Giro d’Italia in emphatic fashion to seal the first grand tour stage win of his career.<\/span><\/p>\n Healy was part of a 12-man breakaway on the 207km stage from Terni to Fossombrone.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But he attacked with almost 50km to go and completed a stunning solo finish.<\/span><\/p>\n The EF rider, 22, finished with a winning margin of one minute and 49 seconds – the biggest in the race since 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n Canada’s Derek Gee took second place ahead of Italy’s Filippo Zana in third.<\/span><\/p>\n “I had good legs today, and just gave it a good go,” Healy said.<\/span><\/p>\n “On the first little dig, I could see that I went solo and just pushed on to the finish from there.<\/span><\/p>\n “I was pretty comfortable and wanted to test the legs, and no one came with me. And I knew I can time trial to the finish pretty well and I was confident in myself to do that, so I just paced myself to the finish and it worked out all right.”<\/span><\/p>\n Great Britain’s Tao Geoghegan Hart finished 10th in the stage and moved up to sixth in the general classification, just behind his Ineos team-mate Geraint Thomas in fifth. <\/span><\/p>\n Norway’s Andreas Leknessund retained the overall race lead but Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic finished the day with a strong attack on the final climb to move up to third.<\/span><\/p>\n Thomas and Geoghegan Hart joined Roglic on the attack and gained 14 seconds on Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel by the end of the stage.<\/span><\/p>\n But Evenepoel remains in second place and is just eight seconds behind Leknessund.<\/span><\/p>\n Stage four winner Aurelien Paret-Peintre dropped four places to seventh after the efforts of Geoghegan Hart and Thomas.<\/span><\/p>\n But despite their improvements, Ineos were dealt a blow before the day started as Filippo Ganna was ruled out after testing positive for Covid-19. <\/span><\/p>\n In a statement on Twitter, Ineos Grenadiers said the two-time time trial world champion had “displayed mild, flu-like symptoms” and that he would “rest and recover fully before resuming his remaining 2023 race programme.”<\/span><\/p>\n