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86km to go: Some Colemanballs from Adam Blythe: “No one wants to close that gap down. Pozzovivo on the front now, and he wants to close that gap down.” Private Eye, you can have that for free.

88km to go: By the way, the peloton are still over three minutes behind. Ganna is still putting the pressure on.

89km to go: About 12 of the original 36 have been jettisoned now, by my eyesight. That is not an exact science. The race is very much on.

90km to go: Riders are being dropped. Costiou and Scaroni have distanced those behind; the pair have about ten seconds. Meanwhile, Ganna and Narváez are attacking together. 

91km to go: The break has definitely split. Scaroni and Castiou are on the front, with a group following which contains Ganna and about five others. The remainder isn’t too far behind. It’s relentless!

93km to go: The doomed 36-rider mega breakaway on stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia will forever be in our hearts. The cooperation has ended, and the attacks keep coming. Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) has still found time to snatch a musette.

94km to go: The counter attacks have begun! It’s Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Deceuninck) who has lit it up, and riders are following. This felt inevitable. 

Osimo looks nice, if you were planning a trip to the Marche.

97km to go: The peloton is strung out, implying they are chasing hard, but the big breakaway is gaining time again. However, the 36 riders are 2:25 behind the duo up ahead. It’s not simple at the moment.

99km to go: At the top of the Osimo climb, Maestri took the three points on offer. Six-ish climbs left to go today, only three of which are categorised. The last comes 10km from the finish, which feels decisive.

100km to go: Alaphilippe and Maestri have 4:50 on the peloton, however. They seem well set, but can they make this last for three more hours?

102km to go: For the first time in forever, we have seen the front of the peloton. Bahrain-Victorious are pulling for Antonio Tiberi, who started the day in fifth, 4:27 behind Pogačar. They are gaining time on the chasing group.

103km to go: This could, in theory, actually open the Giro up a bit more. Well, the battle for the top five, anyway. At the beginning of the day, there were just five riders within five minutes of Tadej Pogačar in the lead, the lowest since 2010. If Hirt, Pozzovivo, López etc could gain some time, then things might look more competitive. 

105km to go: The break now has three minutes on the peloton, and Jan Hirt is closing in on Geraint Thomas’ third spot, if it continues like this…

106km to go: The two up front – Alaphilippe and Maestri – are lloking good, and they’ve just begun the climb up to the top of Osimo, the first categorised hill of today. There are four fourth-cat climbs today, and a few more uncategorised ones left. 2,162m of climbing over 193km doesn’t sound like a tonne, but it seems pretty relentless today.

The team not present in the breakaway at all, by the way, is Bora-Hansgrohe. Give yourself a treat if you got that right.

108km: The riders in 11th, 14th, 15th and 17th overall are all in this big breakaway, so they all have the opportunity to charge up the GC if this stays away. Virtually, Jan Hirt is in fourth…

110km to go: I’m going to try and list the men in the breakaway, and I’ll do it by last name because there are too many.

115km to go: There is almost a third of all riders up the road, staggeringly. Alaphilippe and Maestri have 1:06 on the chasers, and 3:53 on the peloton. At the first intermediate sprint, Maestri took the points. 

116km to go: On the climb of Recanati, the two chasing groups have come together, with riders off the back too. It’s chaos. It’s basically a second peloton, with 36-ish riders in it. Alaphilippe and Maestri now have 56 seconds on that group.

117km to go: Jan Hirt of Soudal Quick-Step, who is in the chasing group, is currently 11th in the GC, 5:57 behind Tadej Pogačar. The more time the break takes, the more he is a threat to his rivals overall.

117km to go: It’s not entirely clear why Alaphilippe decided to go off the front when he did, considering the power that is behind. 117km is a long way to go, especially with the elevation to come.

119km to go: There are three groups on the road behind the lead duo of Alaphilippe and Maestri. There’s a chasing group, with Narváez and Clarke and the rest, which numbers 17. There’s a big group behind, in between them and the peloton, which contains Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Jan Hirt (Soudal Quick-Step), both of whom are reasonably high up the GC. That group has about 13 in it. 

Hello, Adam Becket here taking over while Tom Thewlis goes on lunch. I’ll be talking you through the next hour of break business.

Sánchez beat Alaphilippe to a stage win just a matter of days ago and he clearly doesn’t fancy going up against him again. 

124 km to go: Just as I’ve written that out, Julian Alaphilippe and Maestri have attacked from the break and have gone clear. 

Situation on the road

We’re onto the climbs. 

138km to go: We’re not too far from the start of the climbs now. The break has 1:10 as the peloton dips under a railway bridge. 

141km to go: 48 seconds for that group now. This could be the move today…. we will see. 

That four man move now has 32 seconds advantage. 

146km to go: We’ve got a fresh four man group tryingto build an advantage now. 

153 km to go: Trentin’s move has been swept up.  A handful of other riders are looking to try and form a new breakaway. 

Giro d’Italia stage 12 live: Huge breakaway goes clear

(Image credit: Getty Images)

156km to go: Its all over for now for the Trentin group. 

Filippo Ganna is in this group trying to get across.

160 km to go: Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan) is the next man to try and get a group across the gap to the front. 

A handful of guys are trying to orchestrate a move getting across to the leaders. 

Now the bunch seem to have sat up a little and the lead the Trentin group has is now more than 30 seconds. 

173 km to go: The peloton are flying at the moment and setting a pretty intense pace. 

Enzo Paleni (Groupama FDJ) and Roel van Sintmaartensdijk (Intermarche Wanty) are the other two riders with Trentin. 

180km to go: Trentin is really driving that move on. The gap is 22 seconds at the moment and rising. 

Jonathan Milan, yesterday’s stage winner, was off the back of the main field a moment ago getting a bike change. 

184 km to go: Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling) is up the road in a three man move. 

191km to go: The flag has been dropped and we’ve got attacks instantly as riders look to immediately form a breakaway. 

Stage 12 route

Fabio Jakobsen abandons

General classification

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 41-09:26
2. Daniel Martinez (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, +2-40
3. Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Ineos Grenadiers, +2-56
4. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, +3-39
5. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) bahrain Victorious, +4-27
6. Romain Bardet (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +4-57
7. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan, +5-19
8. Filippo Zana (Ita) Jayco-AIUla, +5-23
9. Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar, +5-28
10. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, +5-52





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