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

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...

We're onto the first categorised climb of the day, which goes up in a series of tiers for 13.2km at an average gradient of a gentle 2.7%. The advantage of the 26 leaders is up to 1'30" and as a result of the easing of pace, the gruppetto of sprinters containing the likes of Gaviria, Cavendish and Groves has managed to latch back on to the main pack.

We finally have a full composition of the riders who have made the move. They are:

Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step)
Alex Baudin, Valentin Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen)
Samuele Battistella, Vadim Pronskiy, Christian Scaroni (Astana-Qazaqstan)
Andrea Pasqualon, Jasha Sutterlin (Bahrain Victorious)
Nico Denz, Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe)
Jonathan Lastra (Cofidis)
Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost)
Alessandro Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani)
Laurens Huys (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty)
Sebastian Berwick, Marco Frigo, Stephen Williams (Israel-PremierTech)
Michel Hessmann, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma)
Einer Rubio (Movistar)
Veljko Stojnic (Team Corratec-Selle Italia)
Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla)
Mads Pedersen, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, Bauke Mollema, Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo)
Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates)

Formolo and Frigo are back with the burgeoning breakaway, which is around 25-strong and has a gap of 40 seconds over the peloton, where Ineos Grenadiers have come to the front to impose some order. It is a peloton now, I hasten to add, rather than a large group - with most of those riders who had been distanced now back on, including the maglia ciclamino Jonathan Milan and all the GC players.

As well as Pedersen, Formolo and Kuss, there are some interesting names in this move: Bauke Mollema, Michael Matthews, Alberto Bettiol, Patrick Konrad, Ilan Van Wilder, Toms Skujins...

Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) and Marco Frigo (Israel-PremierTech) have zipped clear among the vineyards of the rolling Langhe hills. There's a lose chase group of around 25 in pursuit of the Italian duo but it's very fluid and breaking up all the time. The main pack - down to just 50 riders - are about 30 seconds back. But we don't have any official time checks yet because it's still kicking off something rotten.

There is no peloton to speak of now - just several groups all of which have been seriously strung out, sometimes beyond their elastic limit. In the last group on the road we have the maglia ciclamino Jonathan Milan - who won't add any points to his tally at the intermediate sprint today - and also, surprisingly, Jay Vine. The Australian climber crashed two days ago to drop out of GC contention - and he's clearly still feeling the after effects of that. Gaviria, Groves and Cavendish are also there... and Magnus Cort, who won't be going for a repeat of his win two days ago.

The peloton has blown apart on a tough uncategorised climb that precedes today's first proper ascent. A huge group got a split before being pegged back. Now it's Ilan Van Wilder and Derek Gee setting a hefty tempo to string things out. Already riders are being shelled out the back, including Movistar's Fernando Gaviria - who went down hard again 2km from the finish yesterday - and Simone Consonni, who came ninth for Cofidis in Tortona.

After an attack from Filippo Fiorelli (Green Project-Bardiani) is called to heel by Derek Gee and Pieter Serry, the Irishman Ben Healy takes advantage of a short but sharp hill to test the legs and string out the peloton. It's suddenly got very active.

From the outset Soudal Quick-Step duo Pieter Serry and Ilan Van Wilder are sniffing out a move on the front alongside an Alpecin rider. Derek Gee - twice runner-up so far - is in the mix for Israel-PremierTech. It's very active - and then it's not. There's a sudden go-slow and it looks like no one - for now - is interested. The calm before the storm?

It's pretty much a given that the break will go the distance today. The aforementioned Ben Healy is in a skin suit and so clearly fancies his chances of doubling up - and he'll love the final climb. Stefano Oldani of Alpecin-Deceuninck has also been talking up his chances. It will be interesting to see how UAE Team Emirates play this. They have Joao Almeida in third place but riders like Brandon McNulty and Jay Vine - who dropped down the standings two days ago - could do well. And then there's Soudal Quick-Step, who only have three riders left. One of those - Pieter Serry - has never won a pro race before, and may try to rectify that today.

The locals are out in their droves to see the peloton off from the centre of Bra. It's cloudy - with some ominous great clouds lurking - but dry for now. It's a fairly long neutral zone before what will no doubt be a huge battle to get into the breakaway.

It's not exactly a mountain stage but the positioning of the Cat.2 Colle Braida 30km from the finish in Rivoli could prove quite spicy. It's a 9.8mm climb with an average gradient of 7.1% and a maximum tilt of 12%. Given it's probably too hard for the sprinters to get over, we can almost certainly rule out a bunch - or even a reduced - bunch sprint at the finish. So it's one for the breakaway - with EF Education-EasyPost duo Magnus Cort and Ben Healy (both already stage winners) probably amid the favourites.

Mark Cavendish came very close to netting a 19th win on the Giro yesterday after his Astana team worked well for him all day before he came third at Tortona. We spoke to the British champion this morning.

"We worked well, we're motivated and we came close. I can't change how it happened - there were just faster guys. But we're happy. Every sprinter that hasn't won here has been close - that's how it is. Cycling's not football where one team wins, the other loses. There are a couple of stages left, which 10 years ago, would be a sprint. But with the way stages are ridden nowadays that may not be the case. But there's still a couple. Let's just get through the mountains first."

On the foul weather: "It's been cold and wet, but it is what it is. It's the same for everyone.We get on with it and hope for better weather in the coming days."

The rider who caused that crash yesterday is a non-starter today. Italian Covi slipped on a wet corner and took out Thomas, resulting in a domino effect that saw practically the entire Ineos Grenadiers team come down - most notably Geoghegan Hart and Sivakov. Covi managed to complete the stage yesterday over 10 minutes down but has now left the race to get over his injuries having sustained a possible fracture to his sacrum.

That means we now have just three teams now with their full complement of eight riders: Jumbo-Visma, Astana-Qazaqstan and Bahrain Victorious.

The Ineos Grenadiers rider was in third place and just five seconds down in the standings entering yesterday's stage. But the 28-year-old 2020 champion suffered a fractured hip following that crash on Stage 11 and left the race in an ambulance after an incident that also saw team-mate Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma hit the deck.

The longest day of the Giro was won by the finest of margins as Germany’s Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) pipped Italy’s Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) in a photo finish in the 219km Stage 11 to Tortona yesterday.

Ackermann sprang from the wheel of Britain’s Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) to round Denmark’s Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) on the home straight to hold onto his first win of the season despite a late, late surge from Milan, the maglia ciclamino.

It was Ackermann's first win on the Giro in four years and his first in the colours of UAE Team Emirates. It means that none of the sprinters have yet managed to double up in this year's race, with single wins apiece for Pedersen, Groves, Matthews, Milan and now Ackermann. Can Cavendish or Fernando Gaviria join that list before the end?

The British team had five riders in the top 11 going into yesterday's stage before having the carpet pulled from under their feet yesterday. A crash 70km from the finish ended Tao Geoghegan Hart's race and saw Pavel Sivakov lose 14 minutes and plummet out of the top 20. Thomas is still the race leader, while Thymen Arensman and Laurens De Plus are both in the top 10. But their dominant position has been hugely weakened with the loss of Geoghegan Hart, who was in the form of his life.

Ciao ragazzi! And welcome to live coverage of Stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia - a lumpy 185km ride from Bra to Rivoli. It's a day that suits the breakaway specialists far more than the sprinters - although the GC favourites will be on red alert because of some tricky climbs on the menu. Geraint Thomas is the man in pink with a slender two-second lead over Primoz Roglic, while Joao Almeida is now third at 22 seconds following the shock departure of Tao Geohegan Hart yesterday.