MARK Renshaw wasn't on hand to help his teammate Giacomo Nizzolo make a sprint for stage eight victory at the Giro d'Italia as fellow Australian rider Caleb Ewan took the spoils in the 240 kilometre ride to Pesaro.
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The Bathurst rider finished nearly 12 minutes off the pace but survived a tough day in the seat where several uncategorised climbs in the second half of the stage broke the peloton in half.
Team Dimension Data's Nizzolo couldn't stay in contact with the leading trio of Ewan (Lotto Soudal), Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and had to settle for ninth place.
Stage eight, the longest of the Giro d'Italia, was still a day for the sprinters but contained a technical finish that including a pair of sharp corners inside the final kilometre.
Nizzolo spent time at the head of the peloton for the final hour of the stage and managed to sit third approaching the last turn.
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However, he was swamped by Ewan, Viviani and Ackermann in the last 200m dash to the line.
"Giacomo did everything right today in that final hour, and only in the very last corner with 250m to go did he lose position," Team Dimension Data sport director Alex Sans Vega said on the team's website.
"It was a pity, but that's how sprinting goes sometimes.
"Although few, there are still some chances left so these near misses will just add fuel to our fire on the next sprint opportunities."