Giro d’Italia 2016 – Stage 12 [LAST 3 KM]

Giro d’Italia 2016 – Stage 12 [Flat stage] – Noale – Bibione – 182 km

The 2016 Giro d’Italia will be 99th running of the Giro d’Italia, one of cycling’s Grand Tour races. The Giro will start in Apeldoorn on 6 May with an 9.8 km (6 mi) individual time trial, and continue with two other stages in the Netherlands, both between Nijmegen and Arnhem. Then, after a rest day, there will be 18 further stages to reach the finish on 29 May. These stages are principally in Italy, although two stages take place partly in France.

André Greipel sprinted to his third victory of this Giro d’Italia on the pan-flat stage 12, benefitting from the work of his Lotto Soudal teammates before getting the better of closest challenger Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge).

Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) was a distant third as Greipel struck up the 20th Grand Tour stage win of his career, bringing him level in the German record books with Erik Zabel. Rumoured to pull out of the race ahead of the high mountains – as he did last year – the German, wearing the maglia rossa, may have delivered a roaring goodbye to this Giro.

It was as much a tale of teamwork as it was individual strength. Once the breakaway duo of Daniel Oss (BMC) and Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) had been caught with 22km remaining, Greipel’s Lotto Soudal team set up shop on the front of the bunch and stayed their until Greipel had been delivered to the final 200 metres.

The 8km finishing circuit in Bibione, covered twice, was highly technical but Lotto held their own and last man Jurgen Roelandts led round the final 90-degree bend with 300 metres to go. From there Greipel made no mistake, with Ewan the only rider capable of staying anywhere near on terms. The young Australian came up on the right and appeared slightly boxed in as Greipel moved across, but the more experienced rider seemed to posseess the greater power.

With heavy rain for much of the day in northern Italy, the race jury decided to neutralize the tight, twisty finishing circuit, taking times after the first of the two laps so that the GC riders could move aside and let the sprinters get on with it on the final lap.

There were no changes whatsoever, then, to the overall standings, and Bob Jungels will take the pink jersey into the high mountains, starting with Friday’s stage to Cividale del Friuli.

Results :

1 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 4:16:00
2 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
3 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
4 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre – Merida
5 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Team Katusha
6 Moreno Hofland (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
7 Ivan Savitskiy (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo
8 Heinrich Haussler (Aus) IAM Cycling
9 Rick Zabel (Ger) BMC Racing Team
10 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF

General classification after Stage 12:
1 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx – Quick-Step 49:32:20
2 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team 0:00:24
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:07
4 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:09
6 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff Team 0:02:01
7 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha 0:02:25
8 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge 0:02:43
9 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:02:45
10 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre – Merida 0:02:47