The 2015 Giro d'Italia began on 9 May, and stage 12 occurred on 21 May.
Legend Denotes the leader of the general classification Denotes the leader of the mountains classification Denotes the leader of the points classification Denotes the leader of the young rider classification
Stage 12 21 May 2015 — Imola to Vicenza (Monte Berico),
The 12th stage of the Giro featured another chance for the Classics specialists to take a stage victory. The first of the stage was entirely flat before the riders tackled three categorised climbs on the route - the fourth category Castelnuovo, the third category Crosara and the fourth category Monte Berico. Along with the three climbs, the uncategorised climb of Perarolo was also located on the route. The ascent of Monte Berico started at around from the finish, averaging 7.1% and going all the way to the finish. The short climb provided a chance for the general classification contenders to make some differences in the overall standings.
For the first , no rider could break away from the peloton as the riders' pace was at around during that stretch. Finally, 5 riders, consisting of 's Patrick Gretsch, 's Davide Appollonio, 's Enrico Barbin, 's Kenny Elissonde and 's Nick van der Lijke, were able to build a gap on the peloton. However, they were not allowed to build a big lead as the peloton only allowed them to have an advantage of around 2 minutes. The peloton began to reel them in one by one with around still remaining with Gretsch being the last rider reeled in by the peloton. Afterwards, Gianfranco Zilioli of attacked but Louis Vervaeke of joined and dropped him but he was not able to build much of a gap and soon, he was also caught. As the riders approached the summit of Crosara, Beñat Intxausti also attacked but his only focus was maintaining the blue jersey. Maglia rosa wearer, Alberto Contador, also gave in a little dig to put him in the right place on the descent.
On the descent, several riders crashed including Simon Gerrans, dropping him out of contention for the stage win. At the front, Alexandre Geniez attacked but his descending style got him off-road and he was also caught. The peloton also split on the descent but they eventually regrouped into a smaller peloton. With around to go, Franco Pellizotti of attacked and although he tried to go solo, 's Tanel Kangert chased and joined him. The duo were able to build a gap of nearly 30 seconds as the riders closed in on the ascent of Monte Berico. In the final kilometre, Kangert was able to distance Pellizotti but Kangert was also caught with around left. After a while, Philippe Gilbert attacked and no one was able to catch him as he took his second Giro stage win. From behind, the peloton split into three groups with Contador taking second place and the 6 bonus seconds, 3 seconds behind Gilbert. With Fabio Aru finishing 8 seconds in arrears of Contador and coupled with the time bonuses he gained, Contador stayed in pink and extended his general classification lead over Aru to 17 seconds.
Stage 12 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 3" 3 + 3" 4 + 3" 5 + 3" 6 + 3" 7 + 6" 8 + 6" 9 + 6" 10 + 6"General classification after Stage 12 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 17" 3 + 55" 4 + 1' 30" 5 + 1' 55" 6 + 2' 19" 7 + 2' 21" 8 + 2' 29" 9 + 2' 38" 10 + 2' 44"
Stage 13
22 May 2015 — Montecchio Maggiore to Jesolo,
After two stages partially designed for Classics specialists, the riders tackled an entirely flat course designed for pure sprinters. No climbs were included on the route and no uphill roads were included on the stage. The final could have introduced winds that sparked echelons in the peloton and rain could have also been a factor on the stage, especially on the expected bunch sprint in the finale.
Unlike the previous stage when a break was not allowed to go away easily, a break was already established early, consisting of 's Rick Zabel, 's Jérôme Pineau and 's Marco Frapporti. The break was not allowed to build a large gap, however, as the peloton only allowed them to have an advantage of around two and a half minutes before chasing them. At one point during the stage, the break was stopped by a crossing train and as a result, the peloton also slowed down to allow the break to build a gap again. However, the advantage of the breakaway went down from two minutes to just around one minute. Frapporti won the first intermediate sprint while Zabel won the second intermediate sprint. However, the peloton was quickly closing in on the three breakaway riders.
With the chase being led by the sprinters' teams, the gap was down to around 30 seconds with around left and with left, the lead of the trio was down to 14 seconds. The trio would eventually be caught from the finish. After all riders regrouped, led the peloton for around before took over with to go, trying to set up their sprinter, Giacomo Nizzolo. However, with left, a crash took down most of the riders. Among those caught in the crash were general classification contenders, Alberto Contador and Richie Porte. As the crash took place just outside the banner, time lost would stand. Meanwhile, up front, took over the peloton as the riders were closing in on the finish. perfectly led out their sprinter, Sacha Modolo, as Modolo took the stage win ahead of Nizzolo and Elia Viviani. Main general classification contenders, Fabio Aru and Rigoberto Urán, both of whom were able to escape the crash, finished four seconds behind Modolo; Contador finished 36 seconds behind Aru, while Porte lost two minutes on the day. As a result of the crash, Aru took over the maglia rosa ahead of the individual time trial, with a 19-second advantage over Contador. It was the first time in his career that Contador lost a leader's jersey in a Grand Tour after wearing the jersey previously during the race.
Stage 13 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 0" 7 + 0" 8 + 0" 9 + 0" 10 + 0"General classification after Stage 13 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 19" 3 + 1' 14" 4 + 1' 38" 5 + 1' 49" 6 + 2' 02" 7 + 2' 12" 8 + 2' 21" 9 + 2' 40" 10 + 3' 15"
Stage 14 23 May 2015 — Treviso to Valdobbiadene, , individual time trial (ITT)
Featuring the only individual time trial of this year's Giro, the stage was the longest individual time trial since 2009 when Denis Menchov won Stage 12, a test, on his way to overall victory. The riders travelled from Treviso to Valdobbiadene, the home of prosecco and tiramisu. The first of the stage was flat while the rest of the stage was hilly, including the fourth category climb of San Pietro Di Feletto in the middle of the stage. After the climb, a short descent followed before the riders went up a hill again. Another short descent followed before a short climb to the finish. The stage was considered as the most crucial of the Giro and was expected to build huge time gaps between the riders. Following tradition, the riders set off in reverse order of the general classification, starting from the last-placed rider to the leader of the standings. Thus, Marco Coledan of , who was 3h 15' 15" behind maglia rosa wearer Fabio Aru at the start of the day, was the first rider off the start ramp.
However, Coledan was not the first rider to cross the finish line as Michael Hepburn, the third rider off the start ramp, set a time of 1h 21' 05" to set the early time to beat. Shortly after, Nikolay Mihaylov beat Hepburn's times at the intermediate time checks before setting the best time at the finish of 1h 20' 32", 33 seconds faster than Hepburn's time. Christopher Juul-Jensen and Alexander Porsev went close to beating Mihaylov's time but they both fell short at the finish. After a while, Luke Durbridge took Mihaylov out of the hot seat, setting a time of 1h 19' 28", bettering Mihaylov's time by more than a minute. Time trial specialist, Kristof Vandewalle went close to beating Durbridge's time but Vandewalle came back from a crash and fell short by 5 seconds. However, both Vasil Kiryienka and Patrick Gretsch went faster than Durbridge's time. Gretsch set a time of 1h 18' 15" to knock Durbridge off the hot seat but Kiryienka immediately beat Gretsch with a time of 1h 17' 52", 23 seconds better than Gretsch. Kiryienka's time would not be beaten as he took his third Giro stage win.
The focus would eventually shift to the general classification favourites. Change in weather and wind direction played a factor in the stage result and it made it hard for the late starters to set faster times than the early starters. Riders like Jurgen Van den Broeck, Andrey Amador and Leopold König set good times that were enough to move them up the standings. Soon, the four main overall contenders, Richie Porte, Rigoberto Urán, Alberto Contador and Aru went off the start ramp. Porte was the first to set off and although he was expected to set a good time, he struggled as he only finished with a time of 1h 22' 12" in 55th place, 4' 20" behind Kiryienka. Urán, who was a favourite for the stage victory, struggled as well and he could not repeat his performance in the previous year's stage 12 time trial. He could only set a time of 1h 20' 37", 2' 45" behind in 23rd place. After some time, Contador went off the start ramp and despite the effects of his injury and his tweaked time trial position, he set the fastest time of all the general classification favourites. Despite being 1' 05" off Kiryienka's pace at the first intermediate time check, Contador put significant time gaps into his main rivals, even catching his three-minute man, Mikel Landa, on the course as he eventually recorded a time of 1h 18' 06", the third best time and just 14 seconds behind Kiryienka's time. Aru did his best to limit his losses but he could only finish with a time of 1h 20' 53", 3' 01" behind Kiryienka and more importantly, 2' 47" behind Contador. As a result of the huge time gaps, Urán rose to fourth place in the overall standings, 4' 14" behind, while Porte suffered as he dropped to 17th place in the general classification, 8' 52" in arrears. More importantly, Contador retook the maglia rosa by 2' 28" over Aru in second with Amador in third at 3' 36" behind.
Stage 14 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 12" 3 + 14" 4 + 23" 5 + 1' 09" 6 + 1' 17" 7 + 1' 25" 8 + 1' 26" 9 + 1' 27" 10 + 1' 36"General classification after Stage 14 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 2' 28" 3 + 3' 36" 4 + 4' 14" 5 + 4' 17" 6 + 4' 50" 7 + 4' 55" 8 + 4' 56" 9 + 4' 57" 10 + 5' 35"
Stage 15 24 May 2015 — Marostica to Madonna di Campiglio,
To end the race's second week, the riders tackled the second high-mountain stage of the 2015 Giro d'Italia, the first of two Dolomites stages. There were three categorised climbs on the course - the second category La Fricca, the first category Passo Daone and the final first category ascent to the summit finish at Madonna di Campiglio. The ascent to Madonna di Campiglio was well known for its appearance in 1999 when Marco Pantani won the stage finishing at the ski resort. Pantani was eventually expelled from the race before the next stage due to a high hematocrit level. This stage was expected to feature another showdown between the race's main general classification favorites.