The rain, a puncture, a crash which involved some riders in front of him: Diego Ulissi bounced back from bad luck to obtain the 3rd place in the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia. On the final climb of the Monte Berico, he was beaten by two champions, winner Gilbert and pink jersey Contador.

Ulissi rejoined the bunch after a puncture of the rear wheel with 50km to go and later he had to chase again whenhe had to avoid riders who had crashed in front of him on the descent from the climb of Crosara (3rd category, 27km to go).

The Italian succeded in getting back and he could use the remaining energy to sprint on the climb of Monte Berico, obtaining the 3rd place.

For what concerns the other blue-fuchsia-green riders, they tried to escape from the bunch in the early part of the race which was covered at a very high speed (average speed of more than 50 km/h), but they could not join the breakaway which led the race in the central part of the stage.

In the overall classification, Contador increased his advantage over Aru (+17").

"It's a pity I had a puncture and I had to slow down to avoid the riders who had crashed," Ulissi explained. "In order to come back to the bunch, I had to spend energy for 50 km. I missed it in the final sprint, but Gilbert deserves the victory.

"From today until the end of the Giro there won't be many stages suitable for me, so I'll need to try to join the breakaways if I want to achieve more good results."