Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) won stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia on 21 May, with a solo move in the closing kilometres of the 175km run from Imperia to Novi Ligure, holding off a reduced group that never organised a proper chase. Toon Aerts (Lotto-Intermarché) finished second at three seconds, with Thomas Silva (XDS Astana Team) third and Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling Team), the rider with arguably the strongest claim to the sprint, fourth.
Had the remaining sprinter teams been switched on to the situation, Segaert could have been caught, but it stuck because multiple teams spent the day making decisions that cancelled each other out, and the two squads best placed to respond in the finale, NSN and Uno-X Mobility, waited for someone else to lead the chase until it was too late.
Stage 12 Results
Imperia - Novi Ligure • May 21 • 175km
| Pos | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Alec Segaert | TBVBahrain Victorious | 3:53:00 |
| 🥈 | Toon Aerts | LTILotto-Intermarché | + 00:03 |
| 🥉 | Thomas Silva | XATXDS Astana Team | + 00:03 |
| 4 | Ethan Vernon | NSNNSN Cycling Team | + 00:03 |
| 5 | Jasper Stuyven | SOQSoudal Quick-Step | + 00:03 |
| 6 | Orluis Aular | MOVMovistar Team | + 00:03 |
| 7 | Madis Mihkels | EFEEF Education-EasyPost | + 00:03 |
| 8 | Jhonatan Narváez | UADUAE Team Emirates-XRG | + 00:03 |
| 9 | Edoardo Zambanini | TBVBahrain Victorious | + 00:03 |
| 10 | Sakarias Koller Løland | UXMUno-X Mobility | + 00:03 |
| 11 | Francesco Busatto | APTAlpecin-Premier Tech | + 00:03 |
| 12 | David González | Q36Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team | + 00:03 |
| 13 | Oliver Naesen | DCMDecathlon CMA CGM Team | + 00:03 |
| 14 | Mick van Dijke | RBHRed Bull-BORA-hansgrohe | + 00:03 |
| 15 | Andrea Mifsud | TPVTeam Polti VisitMalta | + 00:03 |
| 16 | Koen Bouwman | JAYTeam Jayco-AlUla | + 00:03 |
| 17 | Florian Stork | TUDTudor Pro Cycling Team | + 00:03 |
| 18 | Rémy Rochas | GFDGroupama-FDJ United | + 00:03 |
| 19 | Brieuc Rolland | GFDGroupama-FDJ United | + 00:03 |
| 20 | Corbin Strong | NSNNSN Cycling Team | + 00:03 |
| 21 | Chris Harper | Q36Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team | + 00:03 |
| 22 | Giulio Ciccone | LTKLidl-Trek | + 00:03 |
| 23 | Johannes Kulset | UXMUno-X Mobility | + 00:03 |
| 24 | Embret Svestad-Bårdseng | IGDNetcompany INEOS Cycling Team | + 00:03 |
| 25 | Mark Donovan | Q36Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team | + 00:03 |
| 26 | Thymen Arensman | IGDNetcompany INEOS Cycling Team | + 00:03 |
| 27 | Jai Hindley | RBHRed Bull-BORA-hansgrohe | + 00:03 |
| 28 | Jan Hirt | NSNNSN Cycling Team | + 00:03 |
| 29 | Felix Gall | DCMDecathlon CMA CGM Team | + 00:03 |
| 30 | Gregor Mühlberger | DCMDecathlon CMA CGM Team | + 00:03 |
How the chase stalled
It all started with the rather bizarre tactical misjudgement of Unibet Rose Rockets and Soudal-Quickstep who worked hard to keep the breakaway within two minutes through the opening phase, an investment that made little sense given the climbing still to come. The route included Colle Giovo and Bric Berton, with 2,250 metres of climbing across the stage and more than 50km from the final summit to Novi Ligure. Any break held that tight over flat roads was likely to be caught anyway once the climbs began. All this early pacing did was cause chaos as the early break decided to sit up with new moves from more dangerous riders going clear as well as Unibet Rose Rockets and Soudal-Quickstep burning valuable men they will need later.
The setup for the climbs was clear as well. So many people predicted that Movistar would repeat their intense pace on the climbs of stage 4 here on the stage 12 ascents as well. And they did just that. Movistar pushed the pace to shed the pure sprinters, and it worked. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets), Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) and other headline fast men dropped out of contention, leaving a reduced group where Orluis Aular (Movistar) could realistically contest the finish. The tactic was sound. The execution ran out of fuel. Movistar used too many riders making the race hard and arrived at the finale without the numbers to control it. Despite help from other depleted teams such as EF Education-EasyPost, who worked for Estonian national champion Madis Mihkels. Aular finished sixth, three seconds behind Segaert.
There was some bad luck as well, Ben Turner (Netcompany-Ineos) worked hard to be involved in the finale and made it into the lead group after the climbs. However, as the bunch worked hard to kill off the hopes of Milan, Magnier and the other pure sprinters Turner suffered a puncture. He had to ride solo for a while before teammate Jack Haig dropped back. In the end, he ran out of gas and was unable to sprint, finishing almost four minutes down.
That left a front group containing Vernon, Aular, Sakarias Koller Løland (Uno-X Mobility), Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step), Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Mihkels and a handful of other finishers who could all plausibly win a reduced sprint. NSN had come to the Giro targeting sprint victories on different terrains, and Vernon had done the hard work to survive the climbs. The setup was exactly the kind of finish his team had planned for.
Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike) was riding on the front for Jonas Vingegaard, whose interest in a sprint finish was nil. That presence of the entire team of Visma | Lease a Bike at the head of the group gave the peloton structure but not urgency. Vingegaard's team was protecting their GC leader, not policing attacks for someone else's sprint. Segaert recognised the gap between organisation and intent.
His attack came into a corner, where he used bike handling and the angle of the bend to open metres quickly before the group behind could react in a straight line. By the time anyone started a counter move, Fabio van den Bossche (Soudal-Quickstep) and Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) both worked to bridge solo instead of working for their faster riders of Stuyven and Aular.
NSN only reached the front with 300 metres remaining, by which point Segaert's gap was already decisive. Uno-X had Løland in the group and the same incentive to chase, yet neither team committed early enough. Both left the responsibility to chase to others, each apparently waiting for the other, or for Visma, to close the door. Nobody did.
The result was a stage where every team could point to a reasonable justification for their own decisions in isolation. Movistar shaped the race correctly but spent too much doing it. Visma rode for GC, which was their job. NSN and Uno-X had the legs and the motivation but not the willingness to spend first. Segaert, three seconds clear at the line, was the only rider who acted on what the road was offering while everyone else was still calculating.
Cover image credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
