Guillaume Martin's overall challenge in this edition of the Giro d'Italia appeared to have been submerged by Mount Etna, but sprouted again in the shadow of another volcano on stage 8. In a short, intense stage around Naples on Saturday, the Frenchman broke into the early breakaway and opened up a three-minute gap on the favorites for the win.

"I was very disappointed after the Etna stage. I had prepared a lot for that stage and lost time there," Martin said after stopping the wheels on the Via Caracciolo. Now I'm under a different volcano and things are a little better."

Although he settled for ninth place, 33 seconds behind winner Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Cofidis moved up to 24th overall in the Giro. More importantly, he is 36 seconds ahead of Simon Yates (Bike Exchange-Jayco), who spent the opening week as the overall winner.

Like the desert flowers on the arid slopes of Vesuvius in Giacomo Leopardi's La Ginestra, Martin's overall contenders once again blossomed in an unlikely place. The 153-km stage in the hinterland of Naples featured four winding laps over Monte di Prodica, and this miniature classic was more likely to be contested by Mathieu van der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) and seemed better suited to explosive athletes like Biniam Guillemay (Intermarché Wanty-Gobert Materio).

Van der Poel and Girmay were part of the 21-man break that formed in the early kilometers as the race headed toward Pozzuoli, but Martin's presence was rather surprising. In fact, the Cofidis rider admitted that he had not even considered it beforehand. After the race started from the Previsito square, he was behind the peloton all the way in the neutral zone.

"It was totally unplanned," said Martín. "I think I was behind the peloton at kilometer zero. I had good legs today, so I just followed a certain move. Once I got to the front I knew I had to keep going."

With a tough trip to Brockhaus coming up on Sunday, the other overall contenders did not want to go on the offensive in Naples. He stuck to his task at the front of the race.

"On such a dangerous circuit, I didn't think I was using more energy in front of every corner than behind, so I just kept going.

"But of course in the finale we had to drive into the wind, so I'm sure we used a lot of energy there.

"But it felt better to be in front like that than to be fighting for the wheels in the peloton. It was tough to run with guys like Van der Pol and Guillemay, but it was fun."

On the Monte di Procida circuit in the early laps, Martín confessed to struggling with the intensity of Van der Pol's acceleration, but as the laps went by, the pitch of the race became more to his liking. "I was on Van der Pol's wheel when he first attacked. It was impressive to watch," Martin said. My qualities are endurance and hard work. I could feel myself getting better in the group as the climb went on.

Martin took great solace in the fact that he moved up in the overall standings, despite missing out on a four-man victory with 40km to go. At one point, there was even the possibility of becoming the de facto race leader, but Lopez's Trek-Segafredo team did enough to ensure that the Spaniard would wear the maglia rosa for at least one more day.

"In the finale, I heard we weren't too far off the pink jersey, but then we accelerated in the peloton. I saw that Trek had things under control and I really didn't think it was going to happen," Martin said.

Martin, of course, is mindful that his efforts in the Bay of Naples could prove costly when the race reaches the rugged terrain of Abruzzo on Sunday. In last year's Tour de France, Martín entered the breakaway on the road to Chillán and moved into second place overall, only to stall the next day in Andorra and fall back to ninth place. So.

"I made up some of the time I lost early in the race, but I don't want to lose twice as much time tomorrow," said Martín. But I am an attack rider who likes to race at the front. I don't want to have any regrets."