Philippe Gilbert (BMC) took victory in Vicenza after day twelve in the 2015 Giro d'Italia again exceeded all expectations of competitiveness and spectacle. The Movistar Team played yet another leading role as Intxausti fought for the Maglia Azzurra once again, the Basque climber to wear it for the third time after a brave effort on Thursday, while Izagirre, Amador and Visconti insisted on shaking up the group and keeping  their overall chances alive.

Intxausti conceded one of his two points of advantage over Simon Geschke on Castelnuovo (Cat-4) to later gain seven (61 to 53) to the German in Crosara (Cat-3), a short, hard climb where the bunch broke apart with only 25 riders making it across, including Amador, Izagirre and Intxausti. Visconti, briefly dropped on  the rainy descent, bridged to the front and attacked on the non-rated ascent of Perarolo, but was quickly countered by race leader Alberto Contador (TCS), who left no room to his rivals' chances.

The Blues initially seeked to avoid the sprint - a brief attack from Ion Izagirre in search of late leaders Pellizotti (AND) and Kangert (AST) - and ultimately pulled the group with Intxausti to later claim places number seven (Izagirre), 15 (Visconti) and 20 (Amador), no more than eleven seconds behind the stage winner. The overall remains the same in its top ten places, with the Italian and the Costa Rican seventh and ninth respectively . Sprinters will be back in actionon Friday, with an absolutely flat, 147km journey towards Jesolo.