Giro d'Italia: Narvaez prevails in pursuit on stage 12

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Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) won stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia after surviving from the day’s main break and attacking on the final climbs. 

The Ineos Grenadiers rider went on the offensive with Mark Padun (Bahrain McLaren) and it looked as though the pair would decide the outcome of a rain-soaked stage into Cesenatico but Padun had a mechanical with 24km remaining and despite chasing Narváez to within just nine seconds the Ineos Grenadiers rider rallied in the closing 10 kilometers to win his maiden Grand Tour stage and Ineos' third of this year’s Giro d’Italia.

A disconsolate Padun crossed the line to take second on the stage but it was of little consolation after he looked every bit as good as Narváez on the climbs. Simon Clarke (EF Education) finished some way back in third.

In the race for the maglia rosa João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was more than good enough to retain his advantage in the GC. Despite a day of pressure from NTT Pro Cycling and the weather contributing to a horrific day in the saddle, the young race leader held firm to keep his 34 second lead over Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) with Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) a further nine seconds down.

Narváez and Padun, part of the 14-man early breakaway, pushed on during the descent of the uncategorised Passo delle Siepi with more than 50km to go and quickly passed Clarke, who had attacked just over the summit as the weather continued to worsen and the rest of the escape group shattered.

Driving rain, wind and low temperatures were running themes throughout most of the stage and the conditions certainly appeared to nullify the battle within the GC group. 

NTT Pro Cycling were intent on making the race hard for their leader Domenico Pozzovivo and the South African team reduced the break’s early advantage from around 12 minutes to less than six on the punishingly difficult terrain. But as the team burnt through their riders one by one they were left with only token accelerations from Pozzovivo, who try as he might, simply didn’t have the legs or the terrain to really test his rivals. 

His team’s intent certainly did some damage, however, as they reduced the maglia rosa group to less than 20 riders and isolated Vincenzo Nibali, with the former winner forced to ride the final 50km without any teammates. Only Ilnur Zakarin (CCC Team) from the top-ten contenders lost time however, as all of Pozzovivo’s main rivals kept pace.

Up ahead it looked as though Narváez and Padun would contents the final sprint to decide the stage but on the final descent, the rider from Ukraine suffered a puncture and with Narváez unwilling to wait the Bahrain-McLaren rider was forced to chase. 

It looked like a forlorn cause when the gap ballooned to just over 30 seconds but when the road flattened Narváez began to struggle. He lost time consistently and with 11km to go it looked as though Padun would make the juncture and turn the race on its head but just when it looked like parity would restored Narváez responded and slowly the momentum began to swing back towards the Ineos Grenadiers’ rider. 

With 5km to go it was clear that Narváez would take the win, while Padun would have to settle for second.

"This feels so good because it was a really hard stage with the cold, the rain,"  Narváez said.

"It means a lot for any professional rider to win here at the Giro d’Italia and especially so for me. I want to dedicate this this victory to Nico Portal, the Ineos directeur sportif who passed away. He taught me everything I know as a rider."

Almeida shivered after pulling on yet another pink jersey but he was happy to still be in the maglia rosa.  

"It was a hard stage, almost six hours long with rain and cold, climbs and descents. It was a hard day out but hopefully we can now keep the jersey until Saturday," he said.

"I have a perfect team and they did a perfect job. I’m thankful to them. For sure if you didn’t have the legs today, you’d get dropped but I was feeling good. I guess the other guys were too, so we’ll have a hard race in the next few days."

Almeida was also asked about calls to stop the Giro d'Italia if other COVID-19 cases emerge. He is keen to race on.

"I’m the maglia rosa, so I can’t say: 'Lets stop.' For sure next week will be a hard week but it's not my decision (to stop), that’s the organisation's decision. We’re fighting for the jersey and we’ll see how it goes. I think we have to make the smartest decision for everyone."

How it unfolded

Once again the race was overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic after news broke that 17 police officers on the Giro E-Bike event had tested positive for the virus but despite further rumblings of discontent within the peloton the riders rolled out from the start with a tough day ahead of them.

The racing was aggressive throughout with Mark Padun (Bahrain McLaren), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jesper Hansen (Cofidis), Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers), Max Richeze (UAE Team Emirates), François Bidard (AG2R La Mondiale), Simon Pellaud (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), Manuele Boaro (Astana), Joey Rosskopf (CCC Team), Simon Clarke (EF Pro Cycling), Hector Carretero, Albert Torres (Movistar), Victor Campenaerts (NTT Pro Cycling) and Etienne Van Empel (Vini Zabù-Brado-KTM forming the early break.

The leaders established a healthy lead of over 12 minutes but when NTT began to take control of the peloton the advantage quickly began to tumble. With 94km remaining the leaders had seen then gap almost halved to 6:30 as gaps within the peloton began to appear.

UP ahead, Pellaud competed for every point available in every possible classification but his efforts also began to expose the weaker riders in the break and with 73km to go the Androni rider was joined by Rosskopf and Benedetti.

The trio started the Madonna di Pugliano, the hardest climb of the day, with a slender lead before Padun, Hansen, Narváez, Bidard, Boaro and Clarke made contact. Pellaud went for the points at the top of the climb but Clarke was the first to kick on during the descent of the Passo delle Siepi  before Narváez and Padun quickly caught and dropped the EF Pro Cycling rider. The Australian held the leaders at less than 30 seconds until a mechanical ruined his chances, while the rest of the break quickly began to lose time and motivation.

With 35km to go the two leaders had 2:43 over the bulk of the early break, while the bunch sat at 6:28. NTT were left with just Ben O’Connor on the final climb after the rest of the team peeled off the front one-by-one and when the Australian finally pulled over Pozzovivo put in a series of short accelerations. The road was too shallow, the Italian – like his rivals – too fatigued to make the difference but at least he and NTT made an attempt.