Giro d'Italia 2023 Stage 12 recap: Nico Denz wins three-up sprint from break as Geraint Thomas stays in pink

"I don’t know what to say – it’s really big for me and I’m obviously super proud. First of all, I was not supposed to be in the breakaway but I got the green light to go. I looked around me and was surrounded by just monsters so I thought I’d just help Konnie [Patrick Konrad] for the win. I knew I wanted to attack on a little kicker, which I did. Obviously, everything came back together but I have a fast finish and that saved me in the end. I’m over the moon right now."

The Welsh veteran crosses the line on the nose of the peloton 8'19" down on today's winner. But the real fight for pink will resume tomorrow with the summit finish on Crans Montana.

You can tell how much it means to the 29-year-old German, who is ecstatic to finally get a Giro stage win in his sixth appearance in the race. He came runner-up in a two-up sprint against Matej Mohoric in 2018 and can now put it on his palmares. He's a previous stage winner on the Tour de Suisse but this will be by far the biggest win of his career. It's the first time in 15 years that Germany have back-to-back wins on the Giro...

Alessandro Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani) takes fourth at 58 seconds and then Marco Frigo (Israel-PremierTech) kicks clear to take fifth at 2'07" before Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step) leads the chase group home 2'20" down.

Back-to-back German stage wins as Nico Denz (Bora-Hansgrohe) gets the better of Tom Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) on the home straight after Sebastian Berwick (Israel-PremierTech) blew up with 200m to go.

Denz leads the trio under the flamme rouge with Skujins on his wheel and Berwick still sitting on in third. There's a slight rise before the home straight and that's where the stage will be won, surely...

Skujins takes it up on a slight rise with Denz in his wheel and Berwick sitting on. The chasers are 2'50" down now but won't return in time. They have ridden this part of the route before - around 50km ago - so they will know what to expect.

Berwick stays on the back, Skujins tightens his shoes, Denz stews after his thwarted attack. One of these three will win in a few minutes.

Meanwhile, 8'40" behind, Ineos Grenadiers have four riders on the front - including the pink jersey of Geraint Thomas - as they keep a lid on matters, with Primoz Roglic and his Jumbo train tucked in just behind. It's been a day of attrition for the GC contenders ahead of tomorrow's expected fireworks.

When Denz and Skujins look over their shoulder and urge Berwick to come through, the Australian replies with a curt, "I'm not doing s***". And that's wholly understandable. He's only just returned to the front after the others dropped him with a vicious attack. And there's no threat from the chasers behind. It makes sense for Berwick to sit on and regain his strength ahead of the finish.

The Australian comes within metres of rejoining the leading duo ahead of the 10km banner - but a slight uphill section knocks the wind out of his sails and the gap grows out again. He has to dig deep and keep focuses - and his tenacity pays off: the others sit up and he returns to the front. So, we're back to three again. And their advantage is still 3'05" over the chasers.

The German is now waiting around and he puts in an unexpected early attack on a slight rise on this flat run towards the finish. He's driving a huge gear and it's enough to break Berwick, but Skujins is able to fight back. So, three become two...

It's quite a large 11-man chase group now that has come back together on the descent with Jumbo duo Michel Hessmann and Sepp Kuss thre, as well as Ilan Van Wilder of Soudal and Einar Rubio of Movistar. We thought Kuss has knocked off his effort but he's back in the fray alongside Davide Formolo.

They are all taking their turns with regular pulls as they keep the gap at over three minutes. If Skujins wins today it would mark great day for Trek, who got four men in the break and took maximum points for Pedersen in the intermediate sprint. But I wouldn't rule out Denz and Berwick, who showed real pluck on that climb.

We're hearing that he's only 30 seconds down on the three leaders but we have had no images of him at all on this descent. Instead, the camera has focused on Frigo, who is only 15 seconds clear of the other chasers but over three minutes behind his team-mate Berwick, Skujins and Denz.

Skujins and Dens knock shoulders on one corner on the descent while, three minutes behind, Frigo has to correct himself on a wet patch on another bend. The peloton has just come over the top around eight minutes back and they will now have to keep their wits about them to avoid any spills on the road to Rivoli.

After Bettiol and Scaroni were reeled in, Davide Formolo put in a big attack. It seems utterly pointless given he can't win the stage and he'll be needed tomorrow in support of his team-mate Joao Almeida, who is third. Perhaps there's a problem with race radio? The next rider to attack is Marco Frigo - another strange decision given he has a team-mate up the road and contesting the win in Sebastian Berwick. Very odd tactics all round.