Giro d'Italia: Stefano Oldani succeeds in elusive stage 12 breakaway

Alpecin-Fenix saw Mathieu van der Poel jump on the day's breakaway on stage 12, however they have struck gold with Stefano Oldani who jumped into all the right moves, and sprinted to the win in Genoa after a tactically brilliant stage.

A day that was clear to be for the breakaway to discuss, the early pan-flat roads were the stage for a massive battle between dozens of riders to get in the front. It took over an hour of racing to get to that point, but eventually a group of over two dozen riders went up the road including names such as Mathieu van der Poel, Wilco Kelderman and Bauke Mollema.

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With no GC threat, the peloton rode comfortably throughout the rest of the day, with Trek - Segafredo taking responsibility. In the breakaway the fist attacks proved decisive, as Lorenzo Rota attacked near the summit of the penultimate climb, and was soon joined by Stefano Oldani and Gijs Leemreize.

Despite the quality behind, the gap quickly grew to around 50 seconds over the descent and run-up to Valico di Trensasco with it's summit with just over 30 kilometers to go. The front trio kept a gap of 35 seconds over the summit as Mollema, Kelderman, Lucas Hamilton and Santiago Buitrago emerged from the chasing group - however to no success.

The front trio collaborated until the final kilometers. Leemreize tried twice to surprise as he had an inferior sprint, however unsuccessfully. It was a sprint finale to the stage, and Stefano Oldani just narrowly managed to beat Lorenzo Rota in the sprint.