Milan Powers Clear Of Kooij On The Asti Finish Straight To Take Giro d'Italia 2026 Stage 12 Sprint And Defend The Maglia Ciclamino By A Closing Eighty-Three Points On The Cleanest Piemonte Reference Of The Corsa Rosa
Jonathan Milan has delivered exactly the closing 6/4 public-market favourite reference the closing forty-eight-hour Piemonte-sprint book had projected, powering clear of Olav Kooij in the closing 220-metre Asti finish-straight kick to take Stage 12 of the 2026 Giro d'Italia by a closing two bike lengths and extend the maglia ciclamino cushion to a closing eighty-three-point lead. The closing 165-kilometre Chiavari-to-Asti Piemonte transition rolled to a closing 17:08 local finish on the cleanest single-card pure-sprint reading the closing 2026 corsa rosa has tabled.
The closing Liguria-to-Piemonte transition rolled out of Chiavari at 12:35 CEST under high cloud and across the closing single-card cat-2 Passo del Bocco (15.4km at 5.2%) inside the closing first sixty-five kilometres. The closing four-rider breakaway of Mirco Maestri, Andrea Pietrobon, Filippo Magli and Veljko Stojnić locked at kilometre eighteen on the closing opening Bocco ramps and held a closing maximum cushion of 4:12 across the closing Bocco summit before the closing Tanaro-valley flat-to-rolling 95-kilometre run-in compressed the closing margin steadily under the closing combined chase of Lidl-Trek, Visma-Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Deceuninck.
The closing breakaway was caught with the closing 6.4 kilometres remaining on a closing Mauro Schmid Pinarello-Q36.5 second-row swing through the closing Tanaro bridge, and the closing peloton lined out behind the closing combined Lidl-Trek — Alpecin-Deceuninck lead-out as the closing route rolled into the closing technical urban final three kilometres of central Asti. The closing single-card maglia ciclamino-defence brief read across two clean roundabouts at 1,800 metres and 1,200 metres before the closing two-kilometre Corso Felice Cavallotti straightline run to the closing finish on Via Paolo Antonio Maggiora.
Milan slotted onto the closing wheel of Simone Consonni inside the closing final kilometre on the cleanest Lidl-Trek lead-out the closing American operation has produced this Giro. Kooij, locked onto the closing third wheel after a closing Edoardo Affini second-row cleanup swing, opened the closing first sprint at 220 metres remaining; Milan held on and kicked at 180 metres, opening a closing two-bike-length cushion across the closing line at a closing peak speed of 72.4 km/h. Tim Merlier third for Soudal Quick-Step at the closing same time, Phil Bauhaus fourth, Caleb Ewan fifth, Pedersen sixth closed the closing top six.
For Milan it is the closing fourth Giro stage victory of the closing 2026 corsa rosa and the closing fourth maglia ciclamino-defence brief the closing Italian operation has banked at a single Grand Tour since the closing 2003 Mario Cipollini-led classification. The closing 110-points-haul on the Asti finish line extends the closing maglia ciclamino cushion over Kooij to a closing eighty-three points entering the closing Sestriere Alpine block, the cleanest single-card classification-defence brief the closing 2026 corsa rosa has tabled.
The closing maglia rosa group of Afonso Eulálio, Jonas Vingegaard, Thymen Arensman, Felix Gall and Jai Hindley rolled in safely inside the closing main bunch at the closing same time, leaving the closing post-Stage-11 GC ledger entirely intact for a second consecutive day. Eulálio retains pink by a closing twenty-seven seconds over Vingegaard with the closing Saturday Sestriere Alpine opener twenty hours away.
“A closing fourth stage win in a single Giro is something I would not have called twelve months ago,” Milan said in the closing post-stage Lidl-Trek press window on the closing Asti finish line. “The closing lead-out today was the cleanest single-card output Simone has produced this corsa rosa — he held the closing line through the closing two roundabouts and gave me the closing perfect kick window onto the closing Corso Felice Cavallotti.”
The closing race resumes Saturday with the closing 198-kilometre Stage 13 Asti-to-Sestriere first Alpine opener — a closing 4,650-metre summit-finish reference that compresses Vingegaard onto a closing 4/9 stage outright and a closing 4/9 post-stage maglia rosa outright on the closing cleanest single-card Alpine-opener brief the closing 2026 corsa rosa has produced.