Andrea Vendrame won the 12th stage of the race with another successful breakaway, as he managed to sneak in the group and then resist (and attack) the climbers up the final ascent, and had a strong tactical finish beating Chris Hamilton in the sprint, George Bennett finished third. In the GC group everything was ridden calmly, some moves by Trek on the final climb stirred it up but the main favourites all rode in the wheels until the line.
Positive: AG2R had a big day, solidifying the KOM classification and taking a stage win.
Negative: Lot of abandons today, Marc Soler crashed and was the hit GC contender, Alessandro De Marchi also crashed out hard. Fausto Masnada and Gino Mader also had to abandon due to damage done in the previous days.
The Route
Flat as a pancake. The riders are back in the Po valley and you can see it in the profile, there are 198 meters of climbing according to La Flamme Rouge, which actually looks generous! No climbing, all about that sprint.
Not a technical one to the pleasure of the sprinters, and that's the story of the stage. Simple profile simple finale, there's a roundabout the riders will go through with around 600 meters to go but it's quite wide, and there aren't any major technical features in the final kilometers.
The Weather
Southwestern wind. Will be dangerous for crosswinds possibly throughout the day, the GC men will definitely be on their toes, and those looking for a lucky breakaway will also be trying to get in that move as this will be a very fast day.
The Favourites
This is another sprinter stage, as flat as it could be, with nothing technical throughout the day so if the teams of the fast men don't give a big leash to the riders up front they won't have trouble reeling them back in. With Ewan and Merlier gone things are further wide open. I wouldn't dare to say there's a man to beat, you've got the fight for the maglia ciclamino wide open between Peter Sagan who has came from a very important and motivating win on the last sprint, just beating Fernando Gaviria who has another chance to come back tomorrow and with his leadout untouched UAE have a good opportunity to take their first win of the race.
In third place in that classification surprisingly is Davide Cimolai, Israel had a good leadout but has lost 3 riders already, the Italian has been riding really well though and should be able to be up there once again, similar to Matteo Moschetti who hasn't had a leadout but has done really well in the sprints so far. On the opposite side of the spectrum we have two riders with good leadouts and teams fully focused on them, with local Elia Viviani being one of them who will have another opportunity to lead his Cofidis leadout to the win, and Giacomo Nizzolo who is the main favourite to finish runner-up. Outside of this fight there is Jumbo who still have both their fast men in the race, they will have a good opportunity tomorrow with a fast flat and non-technical finish, if they manage to set it up nicely Dylan Groenewegen will have a good chance to take the win he's been working for. There will also be outsiders in mainly Max Kanter which I expect to see have a strong finish tomorrow with the experienced DSM leadout, Andrea Pasqualon and Filippo Fiorelli.
Furthermore for breakaway chances, because they do exist out of the flat roads and the wind that will be felt, we can point out some strong rouleurs who may shoot their shot like Alexis Gougeard, Simon Pellaud, Jimmy Janssens, Jens Keukeleire, Lars van den Berg, Albert Torres, Nico Denz. The breakaway will likely be made up of mostly Italian PCT riders though, Davide Gabburo is a possibility as a local to these roads, Edoardo Affini aswell has a good stage for him but likely his job will be to help his sprinters.
Prediction Time
⭐ Kanter, Moschetti, Dekker, Kanter, Pasqualon, Fiorelli
I think Dylan Groenewegen will get his win tomorrow, it quite literally can't get any flatter, the finale won't be technical, it's perfect for him and with the other main powerhouse sprinter gone, Groenewegen will get back to his winning ways.
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