After leaving Martinsicuro the route follows the Adriatic Sea for about an hour. Way before reaching Ancona the riders take a left turn in Fontespina to continue inland.
This area of Italy happens to be rather hilly. The climbs are not hard in themselves, but it’s a lot – seven, to be precise. The last one goes at double digits to hilltop village San Costanzo. It’s 1.5 kilometres long and peaks out with 12 kilometres remaining.
After moving through San Costanzo, the route continues false flat downhill for a few kilometres before a proper descent leads onto the last 6 kilometres on the flat.
Fano hosted a Giro d’Italia stage finish in 2012 and it was Mark Cavendish who powered to victory, while the 2018 Tirreno-Adriatico saw Marcel Kittel catapult himself to glory in the ancient town in the Marche region.
Who’ll succeed these two behemoths of the bunch sprint? Given the predominantly hilly second part of the race, pure sprinters are not the most likely candidates.
The second intermediate sprint comes with 3, 2 and 1 seconds, while the first three riders on the line gain 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
Ride the route yourself? Download GPX 12th stage 2024 Giro d’Italia.
Stage 12 of the Giro starts at 12:25 and the race is expected to finish around 17:15 – both are local times (CET).
Giro d’Italia 2024 stage 12: routes, profiles, videos
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