Just 24 hours after "lending" the Best Young Rider (BYR) lead to Australian Luke Plapp (Jayco Alura), Saturday's Giro d'Italia.

The Belgian, who finished seventh in the summit finish at Prati di Thibo and is running fifth overall, explained that his main goal in the Giro d'Italia was to finish as good as possible in GC, rather than to try for the BYR ranking.

However, he welcomed the chance to return to the class once again, while acknowledging that Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), one of the few GC riders to attack on stage 8, is a serious contender.

Both Tiberi and Wit de Broeks were outclassed by Maria Rosa's Tadej Pogachar at the finish. But instead of complaining about the Slovenian who, as Pogačar put it, took as many victories as possible, Witdebroeks said he had nothing but respect for the Giro leader's eagerness to go for victory after victory. 'If I were in his shoes, I would do the same thing.'

In any case, Uitdebroeks stole the spotlight on Saturday and returned to the top spot in the BYR standings, which he already held from stage 2 to stage 6.

Plapp, the former BYR ranking leader, had predicted Saturday morning that the Vimaris A bike racer would take the jersey by the end of the stage.

"Luke also came to me this morning and said the climb was really hard for him. He also knew he wasn't the kind of racer who would be out here for three weeks trying for GC," Witdebrooks explained.

"I wasn't thinking about the jersey on the stage. But in the end I'm really happy to get the jersey."

Uitdebloks agreed that he knew Tiberi was trying to take the jersey off his shoulders, and with only 21 seconds separating the two, the battle for the white is ongoing. Timen Arensmann (Ineos Grenadiers) is also in the fray, 1:28 behind the Belgian, and Alex Beaudan (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), who held the BYR lead in the first stage, is 2:32 back.

But Tiberi was the most dangerous, attacking twice in the finale and later winning praise from Pogachar. According to Witdebrooks, "I knew Tiberi was going to go for it, so I covered him in the end."

"It wasn't a great day for me when it came to attacking. It was a fast climb and Ineos still had Thomas and Allenman, and the UAE still had Majka and Taddei. So I knew they would go for the sprint."

As for the eventual winner of the small group sprint up the climb of stage 8, Uitdebroeks noted that such a battle was by no means a clear-cut one, given the previous climbs. Even though Pogachar's victory was by no means certain, the writing was all on the wall in the brief skirmish before the final dash.

"When I attacked Tiberi, Taddei quickly caught up with me.

"From past experience, he is really fast and also very strong in the moment. If I had those legs, I would do the same thing." [But in the end, after Antonio attacked so many times, it would have been better for me to be more conservative. 0]

Uitdebloks said the white jersey was something of a bonus prize, but it was a satisfying one for him and for the rest of the cycling world.

"Like I said, getting the jersey back today was not my immediate goal, but I fought well and it was a really important stage. You never know what can happen after such a hard day.

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