Tour of Piedmont 2012
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Tour of Piedmont 2012 Gran Piemonte |
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| Host country |
 Italy
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| Competition period | September 27, 2012 |
| overall length | 188 kilometers |
| Starting field | 144 drivers from 29 nations in 18 teams (103 of them arrived at the finish) |
| winner | |
| Overall rating | 1. Rigoberto Urán 4:30:21 h 2. Luca Paolini + 0:06 min 3. Gorka Verdugo + 0:07 min 
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| ← 2011 | 2013 → |
The 98th Tour of Piedmont (officially: Gran Piemonte ) took place in Italy on September 27, 2012 . The one-day race was part of the UCI Europe Tour 2012 and was classified in the 1st HC category within this. The distance of the classic bike was 188 kilometers. As every year, the race was held two days before the Tour of Lombardy and, together with it, slipped back from the original date in mid-October to September in 2012.
Attendees
There were eleven ProTeams and seven Professional Continental Teams at the start . Well-known participating drivers included defending champions Daniel Moreno and Luca Paolini from the Katusha Team , Franco Pellizotti ( Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela ), Fredrik Kessiakoff , Paolo Tiralongo ( Astana Pro Team ), Alessandro Ballan and Greg Van Avermaet ( BMC Racing Team ), Domenico Pozzovivo ( Colnago-CSF Inox ), Samuel Sanchez , Igor Antón ( Euskaltel-Euskadi ), Filippo Pozzato ( Farnese Vini-Selle Italia ), Ryder Hesjedal , Andrew Talansky ( Garmin-Sharp ), Elia Viviani ( Liquigas-Cannondale ), Giovanni Visconti ( Movistar Team ), Daniele Bennati , Chris Horner and Haimar Zubeldia ( RadioShack-Nissan ) as well as Sergio Henao , Richie Porte , Rigoberto Urán ( Sky ProCycling ). Johannes Fröhlinger and Simon Geschke (both Argos-Shimano ) represented the colors of Germany at the start. Steve Morabito , Mathias Frank (both BMC Racing Team) and Oliver Zaugg (RadioShack-Nissan) started from Switzerland, Thomas Rohrgger (also Radioshack) from Austria . Many of the 144 participants used the race as preparation for the Lombardy Tour, which took place two days later .
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Track and course of the race
The 2012 Piedmont Tour started in Fossano . After the riders had covered the first, flat 86 kilometers in a northerly direction, they reached the first incline in Albugnano (5.6 km). The destination Biella was passed for the first time 33.8 kilometers before the finish, followed by two final laps with the hill of Favaro (6.2 km, up to eleven percent incline) and a technical descent back into town.
Carlos Quintero ( Colombia-Coldeportes ), Matthew Lloyd ( Lampre-ISD ) and Oleg Berdos ( Utensilnord Named ) were able to gain a lead of up to seven minutes as the outliers of the day, but were overtaken before the first pass. On the first ascent to Favaro, Paolo Tiralongo ( Astana Pro Team ) and Amets Txurruka ( Euskaltel-Euskadi ) pulled away from the field, but both were put back on the following descent. In the flat a new top group was formed with Gianluca Brambilla ( Colnago-CSF Inox ), Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre-ISD), Miguel Ángel Rubiano ( Androni Giocattoli ) and Vladimir Miholjević ( Acqua e Sapone ), but they are just as little about the new one How the soloist Alessandro Proni ( Farnese Vini-Selle Italia ) saved the rise . The decisive attack was finally made by the two Sky-Colombians Sergio Henao and Rigoberto Urán , who in the end could only be followed by Gorka Verdugo from Euskaltel. After having worked at the pace, Henao fell back into the first chasing group. Two kilometers from the finish, Luca Paolini ( Katusha Team ) attacked and almost made the connection to the very front, where uranium competed 400 meters from the finish line on the cobblestones and won as a soloist, while Paolini was still second. Behind it the pursuers rolled to the finish.
Final score
| driver | nation | team | time | |
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| 1. | Rigoberto Urán |
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Sky ProCycling | 4:30:21 h |
| 2. | Luca Paolini |
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Katusha team | + 0:06 min |
| 3. | Gorka Verdugo |
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Euskaltel-Euskadi | + 0:07 min |
| 4th | Sergio Henao |
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Sky ProCycling | + 0:11 min |
| 5. | Carlos Betancur |
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Acqua & Sapone | same time |
| 6th | Mauro Santambrogio |
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BMC Racing Team | same time |
| 7th | Daniele Bennati |
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RadioShack Nissan | + 0:27 min |
| 8th. | Greg Van Avermaet |
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BMC Racing Team | same time |
| 9. | Giovanni Visconti |
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Movistar | same time |
| 10. | Simone Ponzi |
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Astana Pro Team | same time |