Cor Vos
Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) stormed to his first ever Grand Tour stage victory on Thursday's stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia after attacking out of a reduced bunch with just over 3 km to go.
Three seconds behind Segaert, Toon Aerts (Lotto-Intermarché) secured runner-up honors in Novi Ligure ahead of Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana). Race leader Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) and the other major GC riders finished safely in the bunch.
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[race_result id=13 stage_id=89976 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89976 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
How it happened
- With a pair of Cat. 3 climbs in the second half of the day, the 175 km stage in northwestern Italy was an in-betweener sort of challenge that gave hope to breakaway specialists and fast finishers alike, although it was clear that it would be a tall order for the purer sprinters to stay in touch.
- The first half of the stage saw aggressive racing as five riders formed a break that built up a gap of two minutes only to have the peloton close back to within a minute, allowing a second group and then a third to jump clear of the bunch and then bridge to the leaders.
- Attacks and counterattacks flew out of the lead group until a reconstituted break of six riders found some daylight and pressed on. Behind, things settled down a bit, with the peloton settling into a tempo that kept the gap to the move at about two minutes.
- Just as they did on a similarly lumpy stage 4, Movistar came to the front to set a hard pace for the climbs hoping to thin the field for Orluis Aular. Their efforts quickly took a toll as Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon-CMA CGM) and Dylan Groenewgen (Unibet Rose Rockets) lost touch on the first Cat. 3.
- Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quick Step) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) were dropped near the summit as the hard-charging peloton also swept up the break. Magnier and Milan soon rejoined the peloton but their struggles were not done as a second Cat. 3 loomed.
- With Movistar still in the driver's seat, Magnier and Milan were shelled on the Bric Berton climb.
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