A day for the sprinters finally? Giro d'Italia stage 12 preview

After Narvaez completed his hat trick of stage victories yesterday, stage 12 could be the first day for the sprinters since stage 6, where even that ended with a non-sprinter in Davide Ballerini, who has now been forced to abandon due to a heavy crash yesterday. 


This stage isnt as nailed on a sprint as stages 1, 3 and 6 were before a wheel was turned due to the two categorised climbs in the middle of the stage providing a good opportunity for a breakaway to launch away from the peloton or for a team like Movistar riding for Aular deciding to go very hard up the climbs like they did on stage 4 to get rid of Milan, Magnier and Groenewegen leading to a reduced bunch sprint with mostly non sprinters which was won by Narvaez.

These climbs are nowhere near as hard as the climb on stage 4, with the first one being 11.4km at 4.2% and the second 5.5km at 5.9%, so the pace would have to be really hard on the front of the peloton to particularly drop Magnier, but Milan and Groenewegen could be in trouble on the steeper climb if the race is fast. 

I think a sprinter will win the stage, but I don't think it will be Milan or Groenewegen due to the climb. I'm thinking it will be a second-tier sprinter who is a much better climber, like Aular or Strong, but the favourite in my eyes is Magnier, who is looking to match Narvaez with his third stage win of the Giro. He can climb better than the other two big sprinters in Milan and Groenewegen, so he will be less tired than they are in the final straight, where he should have too much power for the likes of Aular and Strong, making him my pick for today's stage.





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