Olav Kooij sprints to victory on stage 12 of Giro d'Italia
Olav Kooij sprinted to victory on stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia as Isaac Del Toro retained the pink jersey in Viadana.
Kooij was helped by a superb lead-out from Visma-Lease A Bike team-mate Wout Van Aert, with Casper van Uden second over the line ahead of Britain's Ben Turner.
The 172km stage from Modena, the first opportunity for the quick men in a week, came down to the final few bends of a technical finish left slightly damp by earlier rain in Viadana, and Van Aert used all his experience to win the fight for position going into the final sharp left-hander.
Team Picnic PostNL's Van Uden tried to go long with his sprint after being left with a slight gap as the road straightened out, but Kooij kept his cool to take the win while the Ineos Grenadiers' Turner held off Mads Pedersen for the last step on the podium.
A small crash in the peloton with around one kilometre left to go neutralised the times for the overall standings, allowing the general classification contenders to sit up. Del Toro leads by 33 seconds from his UAE Team Emirates team-mate Juan Ayuso with Bahrain-Victorious rider Antonio Tiberi third.
Bonus seconds saw Wednesday's stage winner Richard Carapaz move up to fourth, on the same time as Kooij's team-mate Simon Yates in fifth, one minute and 11 seconds off pink.
"It's really nice to see Olav finishing it off after a really good lead out, I have to say," Van Aert said after the race, "We used our horsepower and he has the kick."
Kooij added: "Only Wout can do such a long lead out like today's. I got an extraordinary support. I have to thank my teammates, also the rest of the team did a fantastic job."
Friday's stage 13 will take the riders 180km from Rovigo to Vicenza.
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