Alpecin-Fenix get tactics spot on as Mathieu Van der Poel turns provider in Stage 12 of Giro d'Italia

Winner turned provider on Thursday as the man we usually associate with standing atop the podium rolled home eight minutes down but all smiles after his team-mate Stefano Oldani took his first ever professional win in the streets of Genova. Mathieu van der Poel came home alongside team-mate Oscar Riesebeek and both were quick to congratulate the winning piece of their Alpecin-Fenix jigsaw after Oldani outfoxed Lorenzo Rota and Gijs Leemreize on the ramped finale to secure the team’s second win of the Giro.

Ad/> The same Lorenzo Rota who, two days earlier, was a key figure in paving the way for Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert team-mate Biniam Girmay’s historic win in Jesi – the Italian having snuffed out all the fires (including a dangerous dig from Van der Poel) while Girmay fought back after making a hash of a late corner. Giro d'ItaliaGiro d'Italia Stage 11 as it happened — Dainese ends Italian wait for winYESTERDAY AT 09:23 /> And the same Gijs Leemreize whose Jumbo-Visma team put on that astonishing display through Tom Dumoulin and Keon Bouwman in Stage 7 to Potenza when the former’s indefatigable exploits helped set up a maiden pro win for the latter, who swooped to the blue jersey in the process.

One day later after Bouwman’s win, the Lotto Soudal team of Thomas De Gendt combined to devastating effect in the Naples circuit race as Harm Vanhoucke buried himself for his compatriot’s stirring win a whole decade after his solo scalp on the Stelvio. So similar were Dumoulin and Vanhoucke’s celebrations as they crossed the line for their respective fourth-place finishes that we ran a reaction piece in praise of Jumbo-Visma’s and Lotto Soudal’s teamwork.

Great teamwork has become something of a theme in this Giro. Only yesterday