Stage 12

The road

At the start

Nove Colli, in Pantani's town

A fourth win for Démare yesterday and not a second of movement on general classification: Almeida, Kelderman at 34, Bilbao at 43, Pozzovivo and Nibali inside a minute. Today starts and finishes in Cesenatico, Marco Pantani's home town, and follows the route of the Nove Colli — cycling's oldest cyclosportive, fifty years old this year, nine hills and 3,800 metres of Romagna. Breakaway country.

How it was won

1. 183 km to go

   The break's twelve minutes tumble

   Over Barbotto and Perticara the break's twelve-minute cushion begins to fall. NTT take up the chase, the gap halves to six and a half minutes, and the maglia rosa group is shredded to under twenty riders.

2. 265 km to go

   Madonna di Pugliano shatters it

   The hardest climb of the day undoes the break. Pellaud, Rosskopf and Benedetti start it with a thin lead and are swallowed; Padun, Narváez, Clarke, Hansen, Bidard and Boaro come across. Pellaud takes the points at the summit, Clarke kicks first on the Passo delle Siepi descent - and Narváez and Padun ride away from him.

3. 324 km to go

   Padun punctures, Narváez goes

   Twenty-four kilometres out, on the last descent, Padun flats. Narváez does not look back and does not wait. The Ukrainian gets a wheel and sets off after a man who is suddenly alone and half a minute up the road.

4. 4At the line

   Narváez survives to Cesenatico

   The road flattens toward the coast and Narváez comes apart. His half-minute bleeds away; with eleven kilometres left Padun is nine seconds back and riding like a man who can see the win. Then Narváez steadies, the gap stops falling, and by five kilometres out it is over. He crosses in Pantani's home town for his first Grand Tour stage - Padun a minute and eight behind, with nothing to show for it.

The result