Giro d'Italia 2016: Stage 12 Full Standings and Highlights After Stage 12 Result
Lotto-Soudal's Andre Greipel grabbed his third win of the 2016 Giro d'Italia on Thursday, as he won another mass sprint on a cold and wet day.
The German sprinter finished ahead of Orica-GreenEDGE's Caleb Ewan, closing down the side of the road to stop the Australian from overtaking. Etixx-Quick-Step's Bob Jungels remains the overall leader.
Here's a look at the results from Stage 12, per the Giro's official Twitter account:
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Here are the latest overall standings, per Sky Sports Cycling:
Recap
The profile of Thursday's stage was entirely flat and designed to give the peloton a bit of a rest, with several mountain stages on the schedule. But riders expecting an easy cruise to Bibione were in for a shock.
In typical Giro fashion, dreadful weather conditions turned what should have been a routine stage into a tricky affair, with every rider doing his best not to crash. Eurosport's Felix Lowe put it this way:
Per Global Cycling Network's Daniel Lloyd, event organisers quickly decided the times for the general classification would be taken before the final lap, with no bonus time awarded at the finish line, in an effort to take bodies out of the expected mass sprint.
Two riders tried their luck with an early break, but BMC's Daniel Oss and Bardiani's Mirco Maestri spent their break battling a peloton that barely let up, with the majority of the riders hoping to finish the stage quickly.
Riders mostly avoided crashes, but the final local laps would prove most dangerous, as a lot of competitors were expected to battle for position on the narrow streets of Bibione.
With 50 kilometers left, the two leaders were barely ahead of the peloton, and their break didn't even last until the local circuit, per Lowe:
The peloton stayed together during the final lap, and a crash close to the finish line meant a small group of some 20 riders contested the stage win. The young prodigy Ewan came closer to beating Greipel than he has throughout this year's Giro, but the Lotto-Soudal man expertly closed the door on him.
Greipel will leave the Giro before Friday's stage to start his preparations for the Tour de France—he's the second star sprinter to do so. Etixx-Quick-Step's Marcel Kittel already dropped out after looking dominant in the opening week.
He confirmed the news after the stage, per Cycling News: “My season is full of goals and of course I’m not happy to pull out of the Giro with the red jersey. But the team and myself have made the decision to go home, to leave the Giro today, and prepare for the upcoming goals.”
Friday's stage could be another pivotal one in this year's Giro, as the peloton will face a handful of steep, tricky climbs and even harder descents. The ride to Cividale del Friuli won't crown a Giro champion―the climbs aren't long enough for that―but any contender who has a bad day could lose vital time in the standings.
Expect the more technically able riders to take some chances on the descents as well but not exert themselves too much. Saturday's stage to Alta Badia will be the toughest in this year's Giro, as well as one of the toughest the historic race has ever seen.
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