Giro d'Italia 2023 Stage 12

The break had a good chance on rolling terrain so many riders were eager to give it a try. Thirty eventually made the selection, building a lead of over three and half minutes. After an intermediate sprint with 88KM remaining, five riders snuck out of the thirty rider group. Samuele Battistella of Astana was one but he was ill and had to drop back. The other four carried on and were made up of Nico Denz of Bora-Hansgrohe, Sebastian Berwick of Israel Premier Tech, Alessandro Tonelli of Green Project Bardiani and Toms Skujiņš of Trek. The twenty six chasing could never get organized and it seemed like the four had a chance to go the distance. On the Colle Braida, Tonelli was dropped and Denz doggedly fought to stay with Skujiņš and Berwick. A number of attacks from all three came to nothing and a sprint was inevitable. Denz was forced to lead it out. Denz made a 250M sprint, Berwick couldn't hold the wheel and Skujiņš didn't have the power to get out of the slipstream. It was Denz's first Grand Tour stage win.