Giro d’Italia 2019: Stage 12 – Benedetti triumphs as Polanc takes pink.

Stage 12 and finally the Giro fizzed into excitement as the break went all the way and the GC riders came out to play. Cesare Benedetti‘s dogged persistence delivered his first, and BORA-hansgrohe’s third, victory on this jaunt around Italy. UAE-Team Emirates produced a masterclass in how to retain the maglia rosa by swapping it from the shoulders of Valerio Conti to Jan Polanc – and increased their advantage over Primoz Roglic (Lotto-Visma) to 4 minutes and seven seconds while doing so. All this and Mikel Landa (Movistar) attacked with Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez to gain time on their rivals.
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Settimana Ciclistica internazionale Coppi e Bartali review

27-year old Czech rider Jan Barta (NetApp) triumphed in the final individual time trial – his team having already won the earlier team time trail – to take the overall win in this year’s edition of Coppi e Bartali. Various members of the team had graced the leader’s jersey since the second day’s team time trial. This overall performance rather confirms RCS’s decision to award the team a Giro wild card and silences the doubters.

The team rode a canny race. Apart from winning the two time trials outright, they kept their riders well positioned throughout and, as a consequence, placed not one, but two riders on the podium. Second overall was Barta’s Polish teammate Bartosz Huzarski, while double stage winner Diego Ulissi (Lampre-ISD) was third.

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