Richie Porte and Leopold König finished in a select lead group at the Giro d’Italia after a tricky stage 12 in the rain. Porte dug deep on the ramp to the finish in Monte Berico to cross the line in 12th place, six seconds back on the day’s stage winner Philippe Gilbert.

König followed his team-mate home in 17th, just on the other side of a five-second split in the bunch after a gruelling finish in torrential conditions. The peloton split into a number of groups following a tough pace up the Crosara climb, followed by a treacherous technical descent which saw a number of crashes.

Mikel Nieve was held up in the melee but fought back to finish on the back end of the bunch, while Salvatore Puccio put in an impressive ride to make it into the front group ahead of the run-in. After Gilbert (BMC Racing) had crossed the line it was Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) who jumped out for second, taking valuable bonus seconds in the process and extending his race lead to 17 seconds over Fabio Aru (Astana).

Holding on to 10th overall König sits 2:44 back, while Porte was able to retain 12th, 3:18 off the maglia rosa. Franco Pellizotti (Androni-Sidermec) and Tanel Kangert (Astana) attacked out of the lead group in the closing stages, with the latter caught tantalisingly close to the finish with 200 metres to go.

Vasil Kiryienka came to the fore on the third-category Crosara climb, upping the pace slightly, but it was Contador who again pushed on, accelerating at the head of the bunch for a second day in succession. Elsewhere Elia VIviani added five points to his red jersey tally at the day’s two intermediate sprints, moving up to second in the competition.

"It was really fast in the first part of the stage," confirmed Sports Director Dario Cioni. "They couldn’t get the break to go so it was over 50km/h up to the first sprint. The second half was also tough because you had the climb and the bad weather came in. That made it quite a tough day.

"The guys looked in control. There were quite a few crashes on the descent. Sebastian (Henao) was involved in one but he got going. Richie did well to be in the front group and then we were able to get more guys in the group for the final.

"Tomorrow it’s a pure sprinters' stage. It’s totally flat for 147km. In his home region it’s definitely a stage Elia will be targeting for sure. The only question is the bad weather and how that affects the stage. I think some of the sprinters will possibly be leaving the race soon so it could be the last chance for some teams to commit."