CESENATICO: Jhonatan Narváez earned his first victory in a Grand Tour by winning the 12th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Thursday, and João Almeida held onto the pink jersey.

Narváez, an Ecuadorian rider with the Ineos Grenadiers team, finished 1 minute, 8 seconds ahead of Mark Padun, who had a flat tire on the final descent as the duo were leading the rain-soaked stage.

“Today, I woke up with the right spirit and wanted to be the protagonist in this stage,” Narváez said. “It is not a problem for me to race in the rain, in fact, I prefer it to the hot weather.”

Simon Clarke was third, 6:50 behind Narváez, at the end of the hilly 204-kilometer (124-mile) route that started and ended in Cesenatico.

All three had been in a 14-man breakaway. Narváez and Padun attacked from the remnants of the escape group, with around 50 kilometers remaining, as the weather worsened.

They looked set to contest the finale but Padun’s bike failure cost him dearly and although the Ukrainian rider managed to close the gap to within 10 seconds, Narváez rallied to solo to victory.

The stage also featured five categorized climbs but, on a wet and windy day, there were no attacks from the riders chasing overall victory. They crossed the line 8:25 behind Narváez.

Almeida, a Portuguese rider with the Deceuninck-Quick Step team, remained 34 seconds ahead of Wilco Kelderman and 43 seconds ahead of Pello Bilbao overall.

“Today was a very tough stage. I am happy to have managed to keep the maglia rosa (pink jersey),” Almeida said. “Once again my team was extraordinary, I’m really grateful to my teammates.”

Friday’s 13th stage is a mainly flat 192-kilometer (119-mile) leg from Cervia to Monselice, although it features two categorized climbs towards the end of the route. The Giro was rescheduled from its usual May slot because of the coronavirus pandemic. The race ends in 10 days with an individual time trial in Milan.

Meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates’ Brandon McNulty edged another step closer to breaking into the top-10 at the Giro d’Italia with a fine 6th place on stage 12.

The 12th stage of the Giro d’Italia (Cesenatico-Cesenatico, 204 km) was won from the breakaway, with Jhonathan Narvaez (Ineos-Grenadiers) winning solo at 1’08’’ ahead of his breakaway companion Mark Padun (Bahrain-McLaren) who suffered mechanical trouble inside the final 10km.

UAE Team Emirates were represented in the early move by Maximiliano Richeze, who later drifted back to the peloton.

Earlier, Sagan -- the triple former world champion with the rainbow bands around his sleeves -- pulled off a ride for the ages, soloing to a first win since the 2019 Tour de France to pick up his first-ever stage victory in the ongoing Giro d’Italia.

The finale of Tuesday’s 177km Stage 10 was peppered with steep ramps and hampered by some almighty downpours - but one man could soon see clearly once the rain had gone.

After the frustration of three second places in his debut Giro, Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sagan finally struck gold, riding clear of the day’s breakaway with 12km remaining and withstanding the chase behind as the GC favourites battled for pink supremacy in the wake of an untimely puncture for Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang.

But for Astana’s Fuglsang, the deficit on the pink jersey was far dearer than a handful of bonus seconds.

With the stage overshadowed by the withdrawals of both Mitchelton-Scott and Jumbo-Visma, as well as the Australian Michael Matthews of Team Sunweb, following a raft of positive Covid-19 tests on Monday’s rest day, the Giro needed a spectacle to help keep morale high in the ongoing race being broadcast on Eurosport network.

Sagan duly delivered - forcing his way into the day’s break, defying a fierce pursuit by the Groupama-FDJ team of triple stage winner Arnaud Demare, holding on over a series of double-digit ramps, before powering clear of fellow escapee Ben Swift of Ineos Grenadiers on the final climb.

Agencies