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

The Italian cannot keep up with the tempo of the other four attackers. Behind, it's Alberto Bettiol of EF who has been doing the most to lead the chase. But it's very stop-start because all four riders up the road have team-mates behind. Their advantage is 30 seconds now.

The first splits in the breakaway form as the rain continues to pound down in Biblical proportions. It's Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Alessandro Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani), Samuele Battistella (Astana), Sebastian Berwick (Israel-PremierTech) and Nico Denz (Bora-Hansgrohe) who open up a little gap.

Well, the dry weather was good while it lasted... Just as the race starts the long flat section - a 50km plane before the lumpy roads return - the heavens open to give the riders yet another wet curveball to contend with. The gap has been very constant today once the move was allowed to go clear. It's still 3'15" with Salvatore Puccio of Ineos playing the part of the peloton's metronome on the front.

The Frenchman from AG2R Citroen has been struggling with illness for a few days now and he's finally decide to throw in the sponge. The second rider to withdraw today after Kaden Groves. Alessandro Covi was also a non-starter following his crash yesterday.

Jasha Sutterlin - a team-mate of the maglia ciclamino Jonathan Milan - does his best to get in the way but Mads Pedersen trots to a fairly easy win ahead of Michael Matthews to pocket 12pts and cut his deficit to Milan to 24pts at the top of the standings. The Dane was only 18pts behind Bahrain's Milan before yesterday's stage, but the second-place finish for the Italian youngster in Tortona saw him move 36 points clear of his rival in what is proving to be an intriguing tussle among the fast men. Here's the current top five:

1. Jonathan Milan 164pts
2. Mads Pedersen 140pts
3. Pascal Ackermann 88pts
4. Michael Matthews 68pts
5. Derek Gee 64pts

Amanuel Ghebreigzaghier has come to the front alongside Toms Skujins to help guide their man Mads Pedersen to maximum points in the intermediate sprint. The gap is 3'15" back to the peloton.

The 30 leaders are tackling an uncategorised ascent that precedes the first intermediate sprint. They still have a gap of 3'30" over the pack, which is being led by the Ineos Grenadiers team-mates of the pink jersey Geraint Thomas, who is currently refuelling. Some drops of rain are beginning to fall - and we're hearing reports of heavy showers further along the route today...

The two fastest finishers in this breakaway - Mads and Michael - are having a chin wag on the front. They will have different objectives today: while the Dane's focus will be on the intermediate sprint before turning into a domestique for his other three Trek team-mates, the Australian is the only Jayco rider here and will hope to channel his climbing legs from Mende at last year's Tour de France before contesting the win in Rivoli.

Ineos Grenadiers, Team DSM, Groupama-DSM and Arkea Samsic don't have any riders in this 30-man break. Make of that what you will.

Alberto Bettiol, Michael Matthews, Mads Pedersen, Stefano Oldani, Lorenzo Fortunato and Davide Formolo are all previous stage winners on the Giro. Indeed, Bettiol's win in nearby Stradella in 2021 took in some very similar roads to these today and so he is definitely one to watch today.

A reminder that Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) is the best placed rider on GC in this breakaway. The Australian is 8'43" down on Geraint Thomas, which is why Ineos Grenadiers don't see too bothered by his presence up the road. The gap is hovering around the three-minute mark as it is.

Oldani, Gaburro, Covili and Fortunato have made the connection and so we now have a large 30-man move off the front in this intriguing transitional stage.

Mads Pedersen has three Trek team-mates here and they up the tempo on the descent - perhaps with that intermediate sprint in mind. The first phase of their race will be all about getting the Dane into the maglia ciclamino before the focus shifts to Bauke Mollema and the Dutchman's bid to win the stage. It's going to be a busy day for Skujins and Ghebreigzabhier.

Meanwhile, the chasing Italian quartet is 31" down with the peloton riding at 2'49".

The maglia ciclamino is riding alongside the doctor's car and receiving some treatment for what appears to be a sting of some sort on his face. Perhaps that's why he knocked off his earlier attack.

The Australian rider has been struggling with illness for quite some time and finally calls it a day. That means Alpecin-Deceuninck have lost half their quota of riders now. Groves won Stage 3 in the opening week but has since faded in the cold weather.

Well, that was unexpected. Nico Denz and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier go shoulder-to-shoulder for the 9pts over the summit and it's impossible to choose a winner there. It's later confirmed that the German takes it ahead of the Eritrean, who stays in fourth place in the blue jersey standings but rises to 30pts. Davide Bais - the winner on the Gran Sasso last week - currently leads this competition with 104pts with Thibaut Pinot second on 50pts and Karel Vacek third on 36pts.

Fortunato was joined by Luca Covili (Green Project-Bardiani) and they managed to bridge over to Oldani and Gaburro. This Italian quartet is 50 seconds down on the 26 leaders, with the peloton over two minutes back as we approach the summit of this climb.

Milan is dropped by Oldani and Gabburo who continue their pursuit of the 26 leaders. Fortunato, meanwhile, has whizzed past Milan - who is now pedalling squares on the steeper section of this climb. This has been a really intriguing start to the stage. To think that, back in the day, the TV coverage would miss all these early skirmishes.

The Italian pro-continental team missed the move and so they are now setting tempo on the front of the pack - perhaps with the KOM points in mind for their man in blue Davide Bais. Lorenzo Fortunato - winner on the Zoncolan a couple of years ago - then zips clear.

The slight lull back in the peloton has been exploited by some riders/teams who failed to make the move. Stefano Oldani (Alpecin-Deceuninck) zips clear with Davide Gaburro (Green Project-Bardiani) - and then, spotting an opportunity, Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) bridges over to make it a trio. Impressive stuff from Milan, the maglia ciclamino, who will be keen to peg back Mads Pedersen because the Dane could take enough points in the intermediate sprint to take over the jersey if he's not too careful...