Nico Denz wins stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia

Another rainy day and another victory from the breakaway in a Giro in which the adventurers are being rewarded by a cautious peloton that had its sights set on tomorrow's tough day on the road to Crans Montana. There were no changes in the general classification in which Geraint Thomas continues to wear the maglia rosa.

A great breakaway marks the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia

The bad weather and the heavy rains that are hitting the North of Italy were once again the protagonist in the twelfth stage of the Giro d'Italia in a day that was once again very hard. 185 kilometers between Bra and Rivoli, a town just outside Turin, with a fairly easy profile but with a 2nd category pass, Scara di San Michele, just 20 km from the end, so that some movement could be expected from the riders in the general classification.

However, the most logical thing to happen in the face of the monstrous high mountain stage that awaits the participants in the Giro d'Italia tomorrow was a large and quality breakaway. However, the harsh weather caused things to get out of hand and, after a very fast start to the race, a mini-peloton of 30 riders formed at the head, with quality names such as Alberto Bettiol, Sepp Kuss, Einer Rubio, Michael Matthews, Mads Pedersen, Bauke Mollema, Davide Formolo and Stefano Oldani.

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Behind, this forced the leader's team, INEOS-Grenadiers, to take command of the stage and not let things get out of hand despite the fact that the best classified of the breakaway was more than 8 minutes behind.

And things were more or less under control until, with 100 kilometers to go, the breakaway began to attack, with riders trying to anticipate the climb and a small cut was formed with Samuelle Batistella, Nico Denz, Sebastian Berwick, Toms Skujins and Alessandro Tonelli, although Batistella was left behind soon after, leaving only the 4 remaining riders in the lead.

As usually happens on these occasions, behind, with so many people, no one wanted to try to close the gap and this was increasing to more than 3 minutes while everyone tried to connect with attacks that went nowhere. On the other hand, in the peloton, the control work was taking its toll on INEOS-Grenadiers and the advantage was growing to more than 8 minutes, also thinking of reserving for the climb to the pass.

With the start of the pass the main breakaway group obviously went off the rails, with Bettiol, Scaroni and Alex Baudin chasing the 4 leaders and, behind them, a group of 8 with Sutterlin or Formolo as the most prominent members. Also in front, the attacks began with Skujins being the first to play his chances, although he only managed to eliminate Tonelli at first.

Meanwhile, INEOS-Grenadiers wanted no surprises and stepped up the pace, trying to bring the advantage back below the 8-minute barrier and ensure that no unwanted guests would slip back into the overall, although, after the passage of the stage, they relaxed the pace again, keeping control only over the intermediate group as the leaders were not dangerous.

After suffering infinitely on the climb given his corpulence, Nico Denz managed to crown the pass along with Skujins and Berwick, although both tried to eliminate him, knowing his danger in the final part.
In fact, when they reached the flat, with just over 10 km to go, it was Denz who went on the offensive with a very hard attack that Skujins barely managed to close and almost eliminated Berwick who, with all his courage, fought to get back to the front and succeeded.

Finally, the three would reach the last kilometer together, with plenty of room to keep an eye on each other and choose the most appropriate tactic to try to achieve victory. Bervick was the first to start, but he was quickly overtaken by Skujins and Denz who would fight between them, although it was clearly an unequal fight and Denz managed to win easily, giving the victory to Bora-Hangrohe.

Stage 12 Classification

1. Nico Denz (Bora-Hansgrohe) 04h18’11’’
2. Toms Skukins (Trek-Segafredo) +00’’.
3. Sebastian Berwick (Israel-PremierTech) +03’’
4. Alessandro Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizané) +58’’
5. Marco Frigo (Israel-PremierTech) +02’07’’
6. Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep) +02’20’’
7. Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) +02’20’’
8. Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan) +02’20’’
9. Michel Hessmann (Jumbo-Visma) +02’20’’
10. Alex Baudin (AG2R Citroën) +02’20’’

General Classification

1. Geraint Thomas (INEOS-Grenadiers) 49h02’05’’
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +02’’
3. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +22’’
4. Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) +35’’
5. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) +01+28’’
6. Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +01’52’’
7. Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) +02’32’’
8. Thymen Arensman (INEOS-Grenadiers) +02’32’’
9. Laurens De Plus (INEOS-Grendiers) +02’36’’
10. Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën) +02’48’’