Giro d’Italia 2025 LIVE: Stage 12 result and updates as Olav Kooij wins thrilling sprint

Visma-Lease a Bike’s Giro d’Italia continued to improve as Olav Kooij picked up his first win of this year’s race

(AP)

The 2025 Giro d’Italia continued with a day out for the sprinters after several intriguing stages in the battle for the general classification.

A three-man breakaway was reeled in as the riders headed onto the closing circuit in the city centre of Viadana, teeing up the expected bunch sprint on stage 12.

And it was Olav Kooij of Visma-Lease a Bike who won a thrilling, closely contested five-way battle.

Stage four winner Casper van Uden launched early but his compatriot switched effortlessly from the phenomenal leadout of teammate Wout van Aert onto van Uden’s wheel, before rounding him with ease closer to the line.

Mads Pedersen still leads the points classification by a huge margin but could not add to his three stage wins, finishing fourth, while Ben Turner of Ineos Grenadiers sprinted impressively for third, behind van Uden.

Follow all the action with The Independent’s live blog below:

Giro d'Italia stage 12 LIVE

• Giro continues with stage 12, a 172km sprint stage from Modena to Viadana
• Isaac del Toro added to his advantage in the GC with bonus seconds on stage 11
• Stage 11 was won by Richard Carapaz with an audacious late attack
• Primoz Roglic remains fifth, more than a minute off the lead
• Olav Kooij wins stage 12

[22 May 2025 16:26 · Flo Clifford]

Olav Kooij wins stage 12!

An utterly breathless sprint, huge leadout by Van Aert. Van Uden opened up his sprint early and ultimately four or five riders crossed almost in sync, Pedersen came on strong in the closing stages - but it’s Kooij who takes it!

[22 May 2025 16:26 · Flo Clifford]

500m to go

Van Aert is on the front under the flamme rouge but needs an incredible leadout to deliver Kooij. Pedersen is fifth or so, van Uden up there.

[22 May 2025 16:25 · Flo Clifford]

Flamme rouge

Under the flamme rouge and Visma now lead - Pedersen has been pushed down. Alpecin and Decathlon are there - but there’s been a crash behind, a Polti VisitMalta rider is down and that’s caused some other riders to swerve.

[22 May 2025 16:24 · Flo Clifford]

Under the 3km mark

Under the 3km mark and all riders will get the same time as the group they were in, should there be any incidents in the finale.

Lidl-Trek are still glued to the front. Daan Hoole leads. Van Aert is there for Kooij.

[22 May 2025 16:23 · Flo Clifford]

3km to go

Movistar are moving up for Orluis Aular; Israel PremierTech move up for Corbin Strong, who could become the first man from New Zealand to win a Giro d’Italia stage.

Picnic PostNL are there too for van Uden and Pedersen’s purple jersey is ever-present on the front. Lidl-Trek are holding their line.

[22 May 2025 16:20 · Flo Clifford]

6km to go

All the names you’d expect are here: Van Aert, Kooij, Pedersen, Groves, Bennett, Zijlaard, van Uden. Visma have split a little - Kooij was caught out on stage six with Van Aert accelerating too far back in the final kilometre.

[22 May 2025 16:17 · Flo Clifford]

10km to go

Expect madness. Mads Pedersen is well positioned. Visma are on the front, as are Lidl-Trek and Q36.5 for Matteo Moschetti, who needs to stop sprinting irregularly and getting relegated.

We were at 55km/h a minute ago and the pace is ratcheting up further still.

[22 May 2025 16:12 · Flo Clifford]

Fight for position (15km to go)

There’s essentially a revolving door now as each team presses up to the front and then rolls back down. A real bottleneck as the road twists right and then left, forcing the riders at the back of the bunch almost to a standstill.

Ethan Hayter is well positioned for Soudal Quick-Step at the moment, protecting French sprinter Paul Magnier. Wout van Aert is up there too. UAE are floating around - del Toro is right at the front, exposed, which feels an enormous error of judgement.

[22 May 2025 16:09 · Flo Clifford]

Scenery check

(AP)

(AP)

[22 May 2025 16:01 · Flo Clifford]

Pietrobon caught (26km to go)

Pietrobon’s valiant effort is brought to an end almost exactly as the riders head onto the final circuit of Viadana.

The bell rings, they’re onto the circuit, and the countdown to the sprint is on. There’s a sweeping corner onto the finishing straight which is going to cause serious problems for riders out of position come the finale.