Jumbo-Visma rider praised for "true sportsmanship", checked on injured Tao Geoghegan Hart after Giro-ending crash; G shows off super glamorous pro cycling hotels... hideously grim toilets and all; Man City vs... Lance Armstrong?! + more on the live blog

Amidst the chaos of yesterday's stage 11 crash, Koen Bouwman of Jumbo-Visma has received plaudits for his sporting actions, checking on a rival team's GC rider as he lay injured in the road.

At the time, Tao Geoghegan Hart sat third on GC, five seconds behind Geraint Thomas and just three seconds behind Bouwman's teammate and team leader Primož Roglič. However, having given Roglič his bike, the Dutchman had a minute to breathe while his team caught up to replace his bike, taking a moment to check on Geoghegan Hart...

"I asked if there was anything I could do," Bouwman explained after the finish. "He quickly said it was over for him."

Plenty of love for Koen's kindness...

We really appreciate it @koenbouwman. Thank you 🤝

— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) May 17, 2023

Koen ❤️

— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 17, 2023

True sportsmanship 👌Well done

— marion (@alternatiefje) May 17, 2023

Fair play to you fella, proper sportsmanship.
Chapeau

— thibault pompidou (@bigbadrab36) May 17, 2023

The breakaway within the breakaway took the day, a small group leaving the rest behind and, after a further reduction on the final climb, deciding the stage with a three-up sprint — Nico Denz winning, Toms Skujinš second and Seb Berwick third. The German, following on from compatriot Pascal Ackermann's win yesterday, seemed understandably pretty pleased with the victory...

🇮🇹 #Giro

Pure joy! 🤩

Amazing ride, @NicoDenz 🎉👊🏼👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/sdiXSXx0US

— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) May 18, 2023

> Want to catch all the unmissable action from the Giro d'Italia? Watch live racing on demand with GCN+

Jorge Matesanz began his "brief opinion of a cycling fan" by stating "I don't know if Adam Hansen will read this"... boy did he read (and reply) to it...

[Zac Williams/SWpix.com]

In the piece Matesanz suggested the sponsors and fans deserve full-length stages as planned months in advance, hinting at the discussions to shorten the miserable stage 10 of Tuesday, as well as the snow-caused alteration to tomorrow's.

"In short, cycling should aim to be more attractive, more spectacular," he wrote. "To attract more viewers, a larger audience, to move more and not less. To cause more admiration. Or at least realise that the opinion of those on the other side, consumers after all, also has its importance and should have its weight. In most sectors, the opinion of customers (which is what we are after all) matters and is taken into account.

"In cycling? Only very occasionally. And many of us are getting more and more tired of the fact that little by little we are evolving towards a bubble cycling where nothing happens, where everything is tailored to the comfort of some [the riders] who seem to not like cycling. And when a sport fits the tastes and needs of someone who doesn't like that sport, bad business."

Did Hansen reply? He didn't just reply, he penned the single longest tweet I've ever seen...(all 461 words of it)...

Thanks for the story. I will say this very nicely. My job is to represent the riders, not convince them, change their options, and definitely not side with the organisers, UCI, or fans. I'm not here to make friends with organisers, UCI, teams, or even fans.

It is not my voice.… https://t.co/XVCVTDCSKv

— Adam Hansen (@HansenAdam) May 18, 2023

 The conclusion? "I care," Hansen said. "If you, organisers, sponsors, UCI, or fans rather risk a human's health for your own entertainment, then it proves the point that they need someone on their side, like me."

The other 429 words are worth a read too, if you've got some office time to kill, but that's the TL;DR edition.

So, who's in the break on stage 12? Or maybe the question is who isn't in the breakaway?

Mads Pedersen, Michael Matthews, Alberto Bettiol, Patrick Konrad, Sepp Kuss, Bauke Mollema, Davide Formolo... they're all there, with Stephen Williams flying the flag for the Brits. 26 riders in total, with four chasing on. If it becomes 30 that'll be 22 per cent of the riders left at this Covid and crash-depleted Giro...

A third of Soudal Quick-Step's riders are there (yes, just one of the three), but more impressive is Trek's four out of seven.

Before the start there was a minute's silence for the victims of the floods that hit Emilia Romagna this week...

Before the start of the race, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims of the floods that hit Emilia Romagna in recent days.
.
Il Giro d'Italia ha voluto ricordare con un minuto di raccoglimento le vittime dell'alluvione che ha colpito nei giorni scorsi l'Emilia… pic.twitter.com/EKtjo7plye

— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 18, 2023

> The Giro just avoids Italy's deadly floods – but cycling is now feeling impact of climate change 

from the ashes, a hero rises pic.twitter.com/EK9FdOXiHO

— abby (@abby4thepeople) May 14, 2023

This bike-riding heckler stole the show at a Patriot Front march in Washington DC. Author and photographer Joe Flood was seen interrupting the white supremacist group's speech on Saturday, with such hard-hitting insults as... "Your mum [we refuse to write mom] hates you"... "Your friends hate you"... "You're sloppy"...

"This guy was giving this speech," Mr Flood told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show. "He kept having to stop and pull it out of his pocket and then start reading it. So, every time he stopped, I would yell at him and say he was boring. And then I said, 'Why can't you memorise your speech? Why can't you memorise your speech?'.

"And then I said, 'You look like Gen Custer's illegitimate son'. The guy side-eyed and looked at me, and I thought, I got you. I got in your head. Now get out of my town."

Eighth, fourth, third... Cav's getting closer to that Giro stage win. The bad news, however, is there might not be many more opportunities — there are probably only two more nailed-on sprint days... and one of them's next weekend in Rome and the other side of a brutal third week.

Speaking after the stage Cav said he was "so proud" of his teammates' efforts...

"We were really motivated for today's stage," he explained. "It was a nice sprint on paper, but it wasn't easy to arrive there… The way we built as a team this Giro we knew if we work together, we get there. Vadim rode the whole day on the front, making an incredible tempo and making sure the break never got too far. And the boys looked after me in the final.

"There was a small kick when another team attacked to try to drop us, but the boys stayed with me. We were just off the pack, but we came back, we stayed together, we straight to the front and set up for the sprint. I was so motivated; the boys rode incredible for me, and I am so proud of them, and I am just sorry I couldn’t finish it off.

"I couldn't change anything else about the sprint. In terms of how the sprint went and how I rode it I just got beaten by, actually, two incredible young riders, Pascal Ackermann and Jonathan Milan. It's not bad boys to be beaten by. So, my congratulations to Pascal."

Following the stage, the Ineos Grenadiers confirmed that Geoghegan Hart was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Genoa, where it was revealed that he had suffered a fractured left hip, which will require surgery.

> Tao Geoghegan Hart out of Giro d’Italia after shocking crash which also brought down Geraint Thomas and Primož Roglič