Giro d'Italia: Gilbert wins stage 12 in Vicenza

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Philippe Gilbert gave BMC Racing their first victory at this year’s Giro d’Italia when he produced a typically powerful winning burst up the final steep ramp of Monte Berico in Vicenza. The former world champion’s acceleration carried him past Astana’s Tanel Kangert with 200 metres remaining, and Gilbert was still going away from the riders chasing behind as he crossed the line for his second career victory at the corsa rosa.

The victory provided redemption for Gilbert after he failed to build on the work his teammates had done for him on the previous stage. “I was so disappointed with myself when I couldn’t take advantage of it because I felt empty at the end. I even found it hard to sleep,” admitted Gilbert.

“I was scared that the team might have lost confidence in me, but we had a big meeting this morning, the sports directors gave us our confidence back, and we decided to go for it again. The difference today was that we decided to do no work at the beginning and save ourselves for the final. That was certainly the right decision.”

The battle for second place behind the Belgian was just as intriguing. Once again the finale provided another twist in the GC battle as race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) edged out Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) to take second place behind Gilbert and the six bonus seconds that went with it. Better still for the Spaniard, main rival Fabio Aru (Astana) lost ground, finishing eight seconds in arrears, which resulted in Contador extending his lead to 17 seconds over the Italian.

“We were riding on the front to avoid risks and trying to use our intelligence to keep out of trouble,” said the race leader. “It was another very hard day. We rode the first two hours at about 50kph, then the rain started. The peloton broke apart with the high speeds, but I had good legs. Philippe Gilbert was very strong on the final climb, but I was thinking of the general classification and I’m very happy with the outcome today.”

Heavy rain showers and that high-octane opening to the day made for another very testing “transition” stage. The riders covered 70km before a break managed to gain a significant gap. Patrick Gretsch (AG2R-La Mondiale), Davide Appollonio (Androni-Giocattoli), Enrico Barbin (Bariani-CSF), Kenny Elissonde (FDJ) and Nick van der Lijke (LottoNL-Jumbo) were in the move.

With Orica-GreenEdge keeping the pace high with the aim of keeping Simon Gerrans in contention for the stage win, the five leaders only managed to get two minutes clear. With 57km remaining and the conditions worsening, the battle to be at the front of the peloton on the wet roads ended the break’s hopes.

Gretsch was the last man to be reeled in. As the peloton closed in on the German rider, Androni’s Gianfranco Zilioli bounded clear. The Italian was then joined and then dropped by Lotto-Soudal’s Louis Vervaeke, but the young Belgian’s prospects of a famous win never looked favourable as the peloton, with six Tinkoff-Saxo riders on the front, maintained its rapid pace behind him.

On the second of the day’s categorized climbs at Crosara, 30km from home, Vervaeke’s brief foray ended. Mountains leader Beñat Intxausti led over the third-cat hill. A few seconds behind the Movistar rider, Contador made a little dig near the top of the climb, apparently to test out Aru but also to make sure of being near the front on a technical descent that was made much more hazardous by the rain.

Gerrans lost his hopes of a stage win when he slid off the road on a left-hander. Up at the front, FDJ’s Alexandre Geniez took several corners speedway-style with one leg dangling out to keep him outright, but even this wasn’t enough to prevent the Frenchman going off-road on one bend and sending spectators running for cover. Thankfully, Geniez managed to stay upright and regained the sodden road.

As the riders slipped and slid, the front of the race split. All of the main contenders made it into a 10-strong group at the head of affairs. A second bigger group soon joined them.

With 16km to the finish, Androni’s Franco Pellizotti attacked from this leading pack of 40-odd riders, which was still being pushed along by Tinkoff-Saxo. Steven Kruiswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) attempted to get across to the Italian on the uncategorized climb 13km from home, but his effort was closed down as Movistar’s Giovanni Visconti tried to follow and brought Contador and the other GC favourites with him.

Given his freedom to go in search of the stage win, Kangert clipped away on this descent and joined Pellizotti with 5km remaining. As the duo pushed their lead out to 30 seconds, Gilbert’s BMC teammates took over the pacemaking behind.

With their lead still at 20 seconds as they turned onto the kilometre-long climb of Monte Berico, the two leaders looked like they might hold off the chasers. As the gradient increased, Kangert surged away from Pellizotti, but suddenly the pack was closing. With 400 metres to go, Gilbert, who had looked over the final 70km of this stage earlier in the season, made that knowledge pay and at the same time repaid his teammates’ faith in him.

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