Cold and rain characterized the 12th stage of the Giro d’Italia with departure and arrival in Cesenatico after 204km. Our Mark Padun finished second behind Ecuadorian Jhonatan Narváez, both part of the 14-man early breakaway. The two young riders have attacked with more than 50km, but Mark was held back by a mechanical problem just over 20 km from the finish line, and so his opponent could only take solo win on the Cesenatico seafront.

“This is cycling - Mark commented - it’s difficult to be happy after a second place, but I know I did a good race, which proved to be very hard and selective. If I will try again? We are here to help our leader Pello Bilbao and, fortunately, my condition is growing day by day. I hope to have another chance.”

Sports Director Franco Pellizotti said: ”It was a long day and we were a bit unlucky. We decided to put Mark in the breakaway during the team meeting before the start, and he did a great job all day long. The mechanical he had with 24km remaining prevented him from trying to win, but he must be happy with his excellent performance.”

Pello Bilbao retained his 3rd place overall with a 43sec gap from the race leader João Almeida, while Hermann Pernsteiner had a mechanical in the finale and lost more than 3 minutes and now is 14th overall.