Giro, it’s still Germany: Denz wins. Now the big mountains

RIVOLI – A day of active rest for the men in the standings, without too many jolts or before – see under Covid, zero withdrawals at the start due to viruses, but leave Alexander Covi crashed with Geoghegan Hart on Wednesday – neither during the stage. And so room to escape. The twelfth day of competition of Tour it is a hymn to courage, but also a great battle between thirty men who fled early and then ended up dividing into a thousand small groups. The good one is formed in the plains, before Colle Braida, the hardest climb of the day. They go away with a sort of pheasant, with the lights off without even attacking the Latvian SkujinsGerman Denz and the Australian Berwick and they play the stage in a tight sprint after having avoided, between -7 and -6, even a group of climate activists lying on the asphalt in protest.

Second win in a row for Germany

Success for Nico Denz, a German from the Bora, 29 years old, on the fourth ring in his career. It is the second consecutive victory for Germany after that of Ackermann sprint to Tortona. Skujins second, Berwick third. Fourth, over a minute away, Alexander Tonellidetached from the first three on the Braida climb, fifth Marco Frigo, with some shivering downhill. “Finally a winning escape for me” explains Denz, second in 2018 in Gualdo Tadino behind Matej Mohoric, “it was one of the most chaotic escapes of my career. Nobody wanted to shoot, some teams were watching. After making the hole we started pushing hard.”

Yellow Crans Montana

The group closes at 8 minutes. Nothing changes in the standings: Thomas he always leads with 2″ on Roglic and 22″ on Almeida. Now the big mountains, but the first day in the Alps is still shrouded in mystery. It starts from Borgofranco d’Ivrea, climbs the Great St. Bernardbut without reaching the top. After exiting the tunnel, the route would include the Croix de Coeur, but the descent of the hard Swiss pass is frozen and dangerous: an official decision will be made in the evening. The uphill finish, finally, a Crans-Montana. Three retired during the stage: Groves, Vanhoucke and Cherel. The count of no longer in the race reaches 40.