The 2012 Giro d'Italia returned on Tuesday with another high mountains stage, but there wasn't too much excitement going on in this portion of the race. Jon Izaguirre held off a charging Jose Herrada to start the final stretch of the race and then kept Alessandro De Marchi, Stef Clement and Mathias Frank at bay to cross the finish line for the victory. In fact, he had a 16-second advantage over De Marchi and Clement.
However, this stage didn't shake up the top of the general classification standings. Joaquim Rodriguez still leads the race and wears the maglia rosa while Garmin-Barracuda's Ryder Hesjedal is still 30 seconds behind as the second-place occupant. Ivan Basso is in third with nearly 90 seconds to make up.
Here is how the top 10 finished (full stage standings):
| Pos. | Name | Country | Team | Time | d | Time bonus |
| 1 | Jon Izaguirre Insausti | ESP | EUS | 4:02:00 | 0:00 | 20" |
| 2 | Alessandro De Marchi | ITA | AND | 4:02:16 | 0:16 | 12" |
| 3 | Stef Clement | NED | RAB | 4:02:16 | 0:16 | 8" |
| 4 | Mathias Frank | SUI | BMC | 4:02:19 | 0:19 | |
| 5 | Jose Herrada Lopez | ESP | MOV | 4:02:21 | 0:21 | 4" |
| 6 | Manuele Boaro | ITA | SAX | 4:02:37 | 0:37 | |
| 7 | Matthias Brandle | AUT | APP | 4:02:43 | 0:43 | |
| 8 | Nikolas Maes | BEL | OPQ | 4:02:45 | 0:45 | |
| 9 | Lars Ytting Bak | DEN | LTB | 4:02:45 | 0:45 | 2" |
| 10 | Luca Mazzanti | ITA | FAR | 4:02:48 | 0:48 | 6" |
For more on the 2012 Giro d'Italia, stick with SB Nation Denver and visit cycling blog Podium Cafe.
