DISCUSSION Giro d'Italia Stage 12 | Is Olav Kooij the best sprinter at the Giro? Should flat stages be shorter?

Stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia was a relatively uneventful day, serving as a transition day for the GC contenders. Even though the first part of the day was hilly and had a couple of climbs, the last 80km were completely flat. A final sprint was the expected outcome and that’s what ended up happening, after a small 3-rider breakaway was caught with less than 30km to go.

Olav Kooij didn’t disappoint this time and secured his first victory of this Giro edition thanks to a great team effort and a perfect leadout by Edoardo Affini and Wout van Aert. Former stage winner Casper van Uden and Ben Turner completed the podium.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways.

Well, the typical snoozefest that we get more on the Tour normally. Small break, peloton roadblock to prevent more riders from exiting the peloton, not many difficulties, break under control and caught on the last hour of the race, sprint. Not the type of stage I appreciate personally.

In the Giro it doesn't happen so often but the Tour usually exagerates on this, to the point that some stages don't even have breakaways (specially when there's no mountain points to get). In my opinion, if they wanna do this, they should cut on the race distance. No need to be there just to fill TV time.

Stage without much of a story. 3 men for the breakaway, which was doomed... and the rain came. Del Toro then picked up a 2-second bonus for the overall at the Red Bull Km. In the final sprint, the most organised team won. Edo and Van Aert kept Olav Kooij on the sofa until the last 200 metres.

The Picnic man took off without any vigour, Mads changed gear, but he's worn out, and INEOS, even without sprinters, came out to animate the finish. Entertained? Not really. The most boring stage of the Giro.

Once again, UAE is embarrassing and makes it clear that Juan Ayuso is not their only leader despite being the strongest. It can't be that he has a puncture 50 meters from the finish line and only Igor Arrieta is going to help him. And neither can it be that at the finish line in the peloton he will also be totally alone. At this rate, UAE will lose the Giro, and they will have earned it.

Classic transition stage of a Grand Tour. The stage chasers have preferred to save their strength for more complicated days and the men in the general classification have been able to save themselves for what is to come. Great work by Wout van Aert, who is making a comeback, and Olav Kooij finally gets the victory.

Not many conclusions can be drawn today, as in a transition stage the fight for the GC is put on hold, and it will probably be the case until the next and final week. I thought there would be a bit more of a fight to be in the breakaway of the day, considering the hilly terrain of the first half of the stage, but there was not much ambition and just three adventurers tried their luck with no final prize.

Sprinters were just hungry for a chance after so many days without one and the final sprint was pretty much inevitable. They know that the third week will be extremely challenging and they will most likely only have an opportunity the final day in Rome, so more sprints can be expected the next stages before the rest day.

Visma’s leadout was much better than it was the first sprint day, Affini and Van Aert did a magnificent job and led Kooij to a privileged position where he could show his talent. He just had to deliver and he did, outsprinting everyone else with relative ease. He came here as the biggest favourite in the sprints, so another near miss would have been worrying - especially since the rest of the stars in the sprinters’ galaxy are targeting the Tour.

Today’s victory should relieve Kooij and the Visma team in general, also because Wout van Aert was impressive in the end. He took control of the peloton right after the last km banner was passed and singlehandedly led the bunch until the last 200 meters, allowing Kooij to be in the best position and making his job much easier. It was also very refreshing seeing a proper sprint with nobody being pushed to the barrier, hope this is not an exception.

Also a quick note on the Red Bull km, because I didn’t fully understand the lack of interest in taking those precious bonification seconds. The last survivor of the break took 6 seconds, while 4 and 2 seconds were up for grabs.

However, Ineos launched Kim Heiduk… for what? To avoid GC riders from taking them? Why didn’t Bernal or Arensman actually try to join him? And behind, only Isaac del Toro, Antonio Tiberi and Primoz Roglic fought for the remaining 2 seconds. Nobody else seemed interested in that, even if bonuses could be decisive eventually.

A calm day without too much to mention. Visma committed to another day of full work but this time around it was worth it. Van Aert's problems with positioning have been big, and in the role of a leadout this is the opposite of what he and the team needed.

Whilst not the most technical finale, this will be a win that will remove a lot of tension from the team and Olav Kooij's shoulders, as they've been searching for it for a while now. I believe we may see a Visma on fire in the second half of the race, they are motivated and now both leaders apart from Simon Yates have gotten their win which frees up the whole team for new goals and focus on supporting the GC ambitions.