In rather bad weather conditions with lots of rain, the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013 was a flat and very short stage and it was won in a sprint by Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). The British rider took his third victory in this Italian Grand Tour today.

The pink jersey remains on the shoulders of Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) who took the leader's jersey of the general classification after the individual time trial last Saturday, after having been worn 1 day by Beñat Intxausti (Movistar Team).

The summary of the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013: Longarone > Treviso

Between Longarone and Treviso, the city of bike builder Pinarello, was a stage of only 134 kilometers which was on the programme of the Tour of Italy 2013 this afternoon.

Even though the stage contained the climb of two "walls", the 30 last kilometers of the stage was slightly downhill and the sprinters thus had the highest chances at the finish of this stage.

Finally the stage was even a bit shorter than the initially planned 134 kilometers. Indeed, due to the heavy rain, the stage started a bit further on the stage's race route and the jury also decided to register the times for the general classification at 3 kilometers from the finish, thus making sure that the whole peloton didn't need to go off full speed towards the finish and leaving it up to the sprinters and their teams to battle for victory from a less compact group.

After a few kilometers in the race, Fabio Felline (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), Maxim Belkov (Katusha), Bert de Backer (Team Argos-Shimano) and Maurits Lammertink (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) go off, while Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) tries to join these 4 leading riders. He manages to do so when the gap on the peloton is already a bit above 1 minute 30.

At the first intermediate sprint, after the climb towards Pieve d'Alpago, Maxim Belkov took the points ahead of de Backer and Lammertink and the gap on the peloton continued to go up.

Despite a collective crash, due to a too slippery road section, in the leading group, the gap continued to go up, and stabilised around 3 minutes. After a bit more than 55 kilometers, Marco Marcato is the first rider on top of the Muro di Ca' del Poggio, and the gap is still the same, while in the second intermediate sprint in Vidor, Maurits Lammertink crosses the line first, ahead of Maxim Belkov.

The last mentioned riders then arrives first on top of the Montello Santa Maria della Vittoria, ahead of Fabio Felline and followed at 2'39" by the peloton.

While approaching the finish line, the sprinters teams start their work in front of the peloton in order to reduce this gap and at 12 kilometers from the finish there's only 55 seconds left of the initial gap and at 3 kilometers from the finish this gap has been divided by 5! It's however only in the last 500 meters that the peloton catches back the leading riders and the sprint train of the Omega Pharma-QuickStep team gets set up and delivers Mark Cavendish in the end, for his 3rd stage victory in this Giro d'Italia 2013.

Nothing really surprising thus in this stage with its mean weather conditions ... except for ... the time lost, once again, by Bradley Wiggins, Team Sky's leader in this Tour of Italy, who had the ambition to take the same place in the general classification as in the Tour de France 2012 and who's now, after today's stage, at no less than 5'22" behind Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), at the 13th place.

The classifications after the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013

The stage classification for the 12th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013: Longarone > Treviso

Here's the top 10 of this 12th stage, the day before the 13th stage, another flat one:

1/ Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 3h01'47"
2/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ)
3/ Luka Mezgec (Team Argos-Shimano)
4/ Giacomo Nizzolo (Radioshack-Leopard)
5/ Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE)
6/ Manuel Belletti (AG2R La Mondiale)
7/ Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida)
8/ Sacha Modolo (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox)
9/ Ioannis Tamouridis (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
10/ Francisco Ventoso (Movistar Team)

General classification

After 12 stages, at the day before another flat stage which will be followed by two mountain stages and the second rest day, the top 5 of the general classification shows some surprises, and most importantly that Team Sky is represented by Rigoberto Uran, who was not planned to be the leader in this Giro.

1/ Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - 46h28'14"
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'41"
3/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - +2'04"
4/ Robert Gesink (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - +2'12"
5/ Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) - +2'13"

Points classification

In the points classification we find today's stage winner on top: indeed, Mark Cavendish is ahead of Cadel Evans for 10 points:

1/ Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 83 points
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 73 points
3/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale Pro Cycling Team) - 60 points
4/ Maxim Belkov (Katusha) - 55 points
5/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - 53 points

King of the mountain classification

As for the climbers, we find Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiane Valvole-CSF Inox) solidly leading the classification, with no less than 20 points more than his first follow-up, Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela):

1/ Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiane Valvole-CSF Inox) - 46 points
2/ Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) - 26 points
3/ Robinson Chalapud (Colombia) - 23 points
4/ Maxim Belkov (Katusha) - 18 points
5/ Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) - 16 points

Best young rider classification

In the best young rider classification, the top 5 shows quite important time gaps:

1/ Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) - 46h32'35"
2/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - +1'05"
3/ Wilco Kelderman (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - +4'34"
4/ Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) - +8'31"
5/ Diego Rosa (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) - +24'09"

A video summary of the stage

In the video below you'll find the images of the most important moments of this stage:

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2013

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