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
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:
Olav Kooij wins stage 12
And del Toro adds to his lead in pink.
Changes on GC?
We knew del Toro had gained two seconds on the rest of the GC but strangely enough there’s been some movement further down, although we didn’t see any splits in the bunch approaching the 3km mark. Maybe some of the riders were off the back just before then, and couldn’t get back on in time?
Richard Carapaz is the main mover, up to fourth and shaving 45 seconds off his deficit, while Derek Gee has moved up impressively too. Adam Yates and Thymen Arensman have both dropped out of the top 10, but don’t seem to have lost any time.
1) Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in 38:47:01
2) Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +33”
3) Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) +1’09”
4) Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +1’09”
5) Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1’11”
6) Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1’26”
7) Derek Gee (Israel Premier-Tech) +1’56”
8) Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +2’11”
9) Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +2’18”
Sprint finish
These photos show just how closely contested this sprint actually was, but Olav Kooij was always going to be one of the favourites and he underlined the fact that on paper, he is the fastest man today.
Stage 12
Huge sprint by Casper van Uden, who went from so far back, essentially led out his compatriot Kooij - bit of an error there! - and still held on for second.
Ben Turner was tucked in behind him until essentially the very last moment, delivered expertly by Josh Tarling into that finale.
Kaden Groves was up there too but faded at the end.
'Not a shame to be beaten by Kooij' - Casper van Uden
Casper van Uden doesn’t seem too disappointed by his second place. He’s certainly raising his profile this race.
He’s asked why he launched so early. “I just had the speed, I thought it was better to keep the speed and make it a long one than break again and do a second sprint.”
Too early? “Maybe, but Kooij is also really fast and a really good bike rider so it’s not a shame to be beaten by him.”
Happy with the result? “I think it’s good. We did a good job, I stayed calm and just launched, so I think we can be happy, that was the goal.”
'We're definitely not done yet' - Olav Kooij
Let’s hear from today’s stage winner, a very relieved Olav Kooij.
“It is [a relief], I was waiting for this one,” he says. “We grew into the race, also as a team, with Simon being in a good position, Wout taking a stage win. The other sprints didn’t go right, really happy that today we could do it.”
On his leadout, he says, “Only he [Wout] can do it, so to have him as support here is extraordinary. I really need to thank him and also the rest of the team, they did a fantastic job. You don’t want to be too far [back] in that last corner, that’s maybe why we had to go a bit earlier than we wanted but I could jump on the wheel of Casper and pass him.”
On the unexpected package of van Uden, he says, “There’s a lot of good competition, you need to beat them all and that’s what we did today. We try to race our best every day and aim for wins and good GC with Simon. We’re definitely not done yet.”
'Good leadout, I have to say' - Wout van Aert
Classy interview with Wout van Aert in the melee of the finish line.
“It’s really nice to see Olav finishing it off after a really good leadout, I have to say,” he says. “We used our horsepower and he has the kick, so, great. We took our responsibility, we went for it. If Edo [Edoardo Affini] takes the front you always know it’s going to be lined out and me and Olav had to finish it.”
Stage 12 results
1) Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) in 3:55:40
2) Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL)
3) Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers)
4) Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
5) Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
6) Milan Fretin (Cofidis)
7) Max Kanter (XDS Astana)
8) Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step)
9) Matevz Govekar (Bahrain-Victorious)
10) Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), all at same time
Olav Kooij wins stage 12
Van Uden came round the Visma pair but Kooij jumped straight into his slipstream from Van Aert’s leadout and rode perfectly, just slipping out in the final 10-15 metres or so.
Van Uden was second, another great sprint from him, and a reversal of the top two on stage four. Ben Turner was third from Ineos - a solid result. Pedersen fourth.
It’s a second Giro stage win in Kooij’s young career. He gets a big hug from Van Aert at the finish.
Olav Kooij wins stage 12
After a slightly disappointing opening week, this is turning into a brilliant Giro for Visma. Van Aert getting his maiden Giro stage win, delivering a fabulous leadout, Kooij sealing a sprint win, and Simon Yates climbing magnificently and up there on GC.
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