Cycling: Top 20 finish for Henderson

New Zealand cyclist Greg Henderson led home Team Sky in today's 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia, finishing 16th as Katusha's Filippo Pozzato claimed a first victory for host nation Italy.

Henderson crossed the line 10 seconds down on Pozzato, who clocked five hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds for the win.

The Team Sky website said the decisive moment on the flat 206km route from Citta Sant'Angelo to Porto Recanati came just 12km from the finish when a group of 12 riders broke clear.

Their advantage was never more than 21 seconds but it was enough at that late stage of the race and meant it boiled down to a sprint finish between that select dozen as the peloton was unable to haul them back.

Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) was the first to commit in the race to the line but he had Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) right on his wheel and the Kazakhstan rider surged clear with around 300 metres remaining.

Pozzato timed his charge to perfection, just holding off Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), with Jerome Pineau (Quick-Step) in third.

The other New Zealander in the race, Julian Dean (Garmin) also finished 10sec down on the leader, crossing the line in 49th place.

Henderson is 78th on the general classification, 1hr 12min 06sec down on leader Richie Porte (Australia, Saxo Bank) with 50hr 46min 16sec. Dean is 143rd at 1hr 54min 01sec.

- NZPA