Giro d'Italia: Andre Greipel wins stage 12 as Bob Jungels retains lead

Andre Greipel sprinted to his third victory of this year's Giro d'Italia on stage 12, as Bob Jungels retained the overall lead.

Greipel was given a perfect lead-out by his Lotto Soudal team-mates and capitalised by beating Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) into second place and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) into third.

It was the sixth Giro stage win of Greipel's career and his sixth victory of the season.

The 33-year-old German will now leave the Giro in order to prepare for July's Tour de France.

Due to wet weather earlier in the day, race organisers decided to take all general classification times at the end of the first of two laps of a technical finishing circuit in Bibione.

All of the overall contenders crossed the line safely, meaning Jungels (Etixx - Quick-Step) remains 24 seconds ahead of second-placed Andrey Amador (Movistar) and 1min 7sec in front of third-placed Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) stays 1min 9sec down in fifth.

Greipel told Eurosport: "It was awesome teamwork and a really nice victory. I started the sprint first and I could choose my line first. I saw Caleb on the right side, but obviously he chose the wrong side, but his time will come."

The Giro continues on Friday with a mountainous 170km 13th stage from Palmanova to Cividale del Friuli. Find out more about the route in our race guide.

Stage 12 result

1 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal, 4:16:00

2 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, same time

3 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, st

4 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida. st

5 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Katusha, st

6 Moreno Hofland (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, st

7 Ivan Savitskiy (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo, st

8 Heinrich Haussler (Aus) IAM Cycling, st

9 Rick Zabel (Ger) BMC Racing, st

10 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st

General classification

1 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step, 49:32:20

2 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, +24sec

3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +1:07

4 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, same time

5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +1:09

6 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff, +2:01

7 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha, +2:25

8 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, +2:43

9 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step, +2:45

10 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida, +2:47