Ireland's Ben Healy has won stage eight of the Giro d'Italia, claiming his first Grand Tour stage victory.
The EF Education-EasyPost rider had made no secret of his desire to target the 207-km ride from Terni to Fossombrone, and with 55k to go, he did just that.
After an 80km fight to establish the breakaway, the 22-year-old managed to make the move that got away with a group of 13 riders that stayed together until the business end of the day approached.
Proving too strong for those in the breakaway, the EF Education-Easypost rider attacked over the top of the I Cappuccini climb (2.8km at 7.9%) with two categorised climbs still to go.
Healy set an extraordinary pace on the descent and the following Monte Delle Cesane climb (7.5km at 6.8%) as his lead grew to two minutes on his chasers and almost six minutes from the peloton with just over 15km to go.
Healy took on the I Cappucinni once again with a gap of 2'06" , which tops out with just 5.9km to go until the finish and powered up the steep ascent before making the descent to victory.
A triumphant victory awaited Healy at the bottom of the climb as Healy had the time to sit up and celebrate his solo win, finishing well ahead of the remnants of the breakaway behind as he crossed the finishing line in a time of 4:45.54.
"If you can go solo, it's always better," Healy said.
"I back myself in a long move. I didn't want to take any chances today so I went solo, I knew I had good legs and I managed to hold it to the finish.
"The last couple of months have been a whirlwind and to top it off with this is insane."
Canadian Derek Gee and Italian Filippo Zana took second and third place, respectively.
On the second ascent of I Cappucini, triple Vuelta champion Primoz Roglic attacked and dropped his main rivals for the title, only for Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart to reel him in further up the road.
Evenepoel, however, failed to sustain the pace and crossed the finish line 14 seconds behind those three, while Norway's Andreas Leknessund finished some 20 seconds further adrift though he retained the overall leader's Maglia Rosa.
Leknessund leads Evenepoel by eight seconds overall with Roglic in third place, 38 seconds off the pace. Geoghegan Hart, the 2020 Giro champion, moved up to sixth 56 seconds behind Leknessund.
Healy has been in spectacular form in recent weeks, earning two stage wins at the Coppa I Bartalli before eye-catching performances in the Ardennes Classics such as second at the Amstel Gold Race and fourth in Liege Bastogne Liege.
A former time trial and road race national champion, Healy's stock continues to rise in the pro peloton with now a maiden Grand Tour victory.
Healy has represented the Irish National Team at the Road World Championships at junior and senior level, most recently finishing sixth in the time trial at the 2022 European Championships.
