Ben Turner suffered an unlucky late puncture on stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia on a day which saw Thymen Arensman and Egan Bernal retain their GC positions.
Turner worked hard to take on the day’s pair of late climbs, and headed into the finale in a reduced lead peloton, only to see his momentum halted with a puncture with 23 kilometres to go.
Despite help from Jack Haig and Embret Svestad-Bardseng to return to the bunch, the efforts of a 13-kilometre chase ultimately mean the young Brit was unable to contest the sprint.
Safely crossing the line in Nove Ligure were Arensman and Bernal, who retained third and 15th overall respectively as the second week nears its conclusion.
The stage saw a smash and grab solo victory by Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) who launched an opportunistic late move to hold off the bunch and take the win.
Reaction
Ben Turner - "I fought on the climbs. I thought on the first one I was good, and then on the second one I was really fighting for the last kilometre - but I made it. Then you try to control yourself and look for the final in the sprint. I was really on the limit but you always try and believe until the end.
"But then I came into the valley and had a rear wheel puncture. It was just really bad luck. We fought to come back, Jack [Haig] came to help me but to be honest I had completely nothing [left]. In the end the body just said ciao."