Ivan Basso put distance to all his major rivals for the overall victory, as he on Sunday won stage eight of Giro d’Italia from Civitanova Marche to the summit finish at Mailetta.

The win also secured Basso the pink leader’s jersey.

Team CSC’s captain is now 1.34 ahead of José Enrique Gutierrez (Phonak) in second place.

“I went to the maximum today. My team did a great job today and Carlos Sastre was exceptional.When Cunego attacked, I couldn’t follow him right away, but I went after him and then just kept going,” said a happy Ivan Basso.

Sastre pulled hard on the final 10-kilometer climb with an average percentage of 8.4, and only a handful of riders were able to keep up. With four kilometers to go, Cunego attacked, but when Basso bridged the gap, Cunego was dropped almost immediately and had to settle for second place in the 171-kilometer stage.

Despite his impressive effort in today’s stage, Basso wants to keep his feet on the ground.

“Last year was a good experience for me, because I learned from it. So I’m just going day by day. We’re still just in the first week of the race. Last year I learned that I could lose an hour in one day when I got sick,” Basso added.

“It was perfect for us today. Sastre was really strong today and did his job well. Ivan had good legs too, but even though Ivan was the strongest today, the real work is still ahead of us in this Giro,” said Bjarne Riis.