Despite having an exciting route on paper, Stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia proved once again that long grand tour stages are very rarely exciting. With a breakaway more than 10 minutes up the road, the peloton took an opportunity to recover from yesterday’s excitement. Up ahead, the race got only slightly kinky as Andrea Vandrame (AG2R La Citroen) outsprinted DSM’s Chris Hamilton, while George Bennett (Jumbo Visma) and Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo) had a lover’s quarrel in the race for 3rd and 4th place.
The Final KM
After the longest stage of the Giro d’Italia thus far, it came down to a sprint to the line between Chris Hamilton and Andrea Vendrame. Both riders had played their day tactically brilliant, but Vendrame’s ability to thrive in bunch sprints proved to be his secret weapon.
📽️ Two men, one sprint. After 200 draining kilometre, only one can win.
📽️ Due uomini, uno sprint. Dopo 200 km di fatica, uno solo può vincere.
Powered by @supersapiensinc #Giro pic.twitter.com/5UZPiayTf0
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 20, 2021
The Race To Lose The Stage
In what increasingly became a mystifying situation, George Bennett and Gianluca Brambilla engaged in a breakaway squabble that ultimately became a fight to see which of them could lose the stage the quickest.
#Giro pic.twitter.com/12NNGTDSV5
— cyclingmagazine (@radsportmagazin) May 20, 2021
The situation escalated in the final kilometres as Bennett and Brambilla bickered a few bike lengths off the back of Hamilton and Vendrame. Whilst they did, Hamilton launched an attack that distanced the sad sacks. With the tension already high between them, neither offered to help the other close the gap, and the stage victory disappeared up the road.
If anyone wants some prime beef you’ll find it between 3rd and 4th on today’s stage.
— Journal Velo (@JournalVelo) May 20, 2021
The prime beef really got overcooked at the sprint to the line, where Brambilla swerved and pushed Bennett towards the barriers. He was later relegated (from 3rd to 4th place) and had choice words for the Kiwi after the line. Churlish behaviour from the Italian, if I do say so!
Sums things up nicely. DQ? #Giro pic.twitter.com/mym8IFLIb2
— daniel (@cyclingreporter) May 20, 2021
#Giro – Brambilla after the finish line: "I have nothing to say. Ask George Bennett how to do the race. That's it. Sometimes is better even watching some racing on TV, so you can learn how to do it"
— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) May 20, 2021
The Shark Bites Back. . .Barely
The one bit of excitement from the general classification riders came in the form of Vincenzo Nibali, who started the day more than 4 minutes down on the maglia rosa. The ageing shark attempted to sink his teeth into the downhill run to the finish but came up with only the slightest of nibbles.
Big fan of this Nibali-Ciccone tandem attack.#Giro104🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/8qnG29JMpo
— Will Newton (@InsidePeloton96) May 20, 2021
#Giro
A feisty Vincenzo Nibali is bombing the descent.
Moscon, on his wheel, has crashed and he thankfully looks to be okay.— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) May 20, 2021
Will Gianni Moscon's crash mean there are no repercussions for his approach on the descent, which put @INEOSGrenadiers in danger? 😠@AdamBlythe89 suggests he'll get away with it…#Giro pic.twitter.com/AcoTvll035
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 20, 2021
Nibali doing more damage to Ineos in 5 minutes than Movistar managed in 5 years.
— Journal Velo (@JournalVelo) May 20, 2021
At the end of the day, Nibali managed to gain just 7 seconds on the peloton. Womp, womp. But hey, at least he didn’t swim backward today!
Only four minutes and four seconds left for Nibali to make up. 😉 #Giro
— (((Lukas Knöfler))) (@lukascph) May 20, 2021
Ganna’s Hips Don’t Lie
We first discovered Filippo Ganna‘s illustrious grand tour artistry at last year’s Giro, and the big man has only won our hearts over even more this year with his soft, yet corporal punishment of both the Italian roads and peloton.
Ganna is continuing his peloton punishment today … the pressure is causing splits and gaps. #Giro2021 pic.twitter.com/qKivBeTLyU
— VeloVoices (@VeloVoices) May 20, 2021
Can you imagine sitting behind those hips? *Swoon* That would be a sight. Extremely painful for one’s legs, but a sight nevertheless. Those hips don’t lie, baby!
Thinking about how fast I’d be on Ganna’s wheel but then remembering I couldn’t hold it. #CouchPeloton #Giro pic.twitter.com/y3U1HLRpu6
— Belinda (@reallyspoketome) May 20, 2021
Ganna tugging on a raincoat before he personally beats the crap out of any raindrop that dares confront him on course anyway #Giro14
— Racejunkie (@racejunkieblog) May 20, 2021
The day abandoned
While the first week of the Giro saw only a handful of abandons compared to recent years, the early part of today’s stage made up for it. May we forever remember their sacrifices to our fantasy teams, especially Marc Soler.
After having an extreme Marc Soler-like day yesterday, the Movistarlette crashed at the start of the stage.
#Giro104
Ambulance drives up alongside SOLER but he continues to ride on even though he is well behind.
He is given an ice pack for his back— SPORTSBOOKCOLLECTOR (@FranksBooks) May 20, 2021
Former race leader Alessandro De Marchi also went down hard and it was one of those crashes that made cycling fans stop everything until we found out he was okay. Thankfully, there was no head injury, just broken bones (if you saw the crash, you would know why ‘just broken bones’ was good news) and our thoughts remain with him as he begins the recovery process.
@ADM_RossodiBuja said from his hospital bed:
“I am fine.”
To his teammates he said: “Go fight and never give up!”
We wish Dema a speedy recovery and we will miss him in the next stages in this #Giro.#YallaISN pic.twitter.com/FFT61AdOsc
— Israel Start-Up Nation / Israel Cycling Academy (@TeamIsraelSUN) May 20, 2021
As I was kindly reminded by a fellow Voice this morning, today’s abandons mean 4 of my fantasy team riders have abandoned. I apologise for cursing you four with my selection, dearest friends.
Not a good day today in Il Giro, we had 5 abandons so far.
Soler – crash
De Marchi – crash
Dowsett – stomach problems
Mader – crashed yesterday
Masnada – knee tendinitisThat's a lot. #Giro
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) May 20, 2021
The Wolfpack: Movistar Edition
Surely we thought that Quickstep reached peak dissent during yesterday’s stage when Remco Evenepoel ripped out his earpiece and Joao Almeida appeared to – off and on – begrudgingly pull his young Belgian teammate to the finish. But NO! In a move that tops Movistar’s nonsensical dynamics, Quickstep upped the ante with more dissent.
João Almeida had to wait and tow Evenepoel «I felt good, I had the chance to beat myself with the best, but I had to follow orders from the support car to wait for Remco. Do I feel disappointed? I'd rather be silent than say what I think." https://t.co/yNFnW5rbAs
— Jonas Creteur (@jonas_creteur) May 20, 2021
As if Almeida’s silence wasn’t enough to raise eyebrows, Remco told the media that he is the leader of the team. He also said that radios weren’t working accurately and the team car wasn’t receiving live TV images. Of course, that’s not what the Quickstep team director said. . . who claimed it was simply a bad day for the team.
King Kelly calling out Remco for taking big and bad when Almeida had lost time in the earlier stage. And the DS error y’day. #Giro2021
— VeloVoices (@VeloVoices) May 20, 2021
It is kinda crazy that Remco was put in the Giro as his first comeback race after being out for 9 months and only training consistently for 3. Plus he is only 21. This is formula for a quick burnout.
— velochimp (@velochimp) May 20, 2021
Let’s get serious for a moment, though. The whole Wolfpack nonsense has always been ridiculous. I get remarkable joy from seeing these young wolves going off on their own. Plus, we’ve lost the chaos of Movistar. Obviously, natural selection is doing its part.
The Final Word
Vendrame is one of those riders that you can't put in a single box. And I love him for it.
Vai Andrea, vai!#Giro104🇮🇹
— Will Newton (@InsidePeloton96) May 20, 2021
Results
Stage 12 Top 5
1 Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroën Team) 5:43:48
2 Christopher Hamilton (Team BDSM) s.t.
3 George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) +0:15
4 Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo)
5 Giovanni Visconti (Bardiani CSF Faizane) +01:12
GC Top 10
1 Egan Bernal Gomez (Ineos Grenadiers) 48:29:23
2 Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) +0:45
3 Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) +1:12
4 Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) +1:17
5 Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) +1:22
6 Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:50
7 Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-New Movistar) +2:22
8 Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) +2:24
9 Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) +2:49
10 Daniel Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) +3:15
All the jerseys
Leader’s jersey Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers)
Points jersey Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe)
King of the Mountains Geoffrey Bouchard (Ag2r Citroen)
Best Young Rider Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers)
For full race reviews, go to cyclingnews.
Official race website: Giro d’Italia