The 2012 Giro d'Italia began on 5 May, and stage 11 occurred on 16 May. The 2012 edition began with an individual time trial stage – where each member of the starting peloton of 198 riders competed against the clock – in Herning, Denmark with two more stages held in the country before an early rest day. The riders then travelled by air to Italy, with the race resuming in Verona and a team time trial, an event where each member of a team started together racing against the clock.
Taylor Phinney held the lead of the race throughout its opening Danish leg; having won the race-commencing individual time trial, Phinney defended it on the following two stages, despite crashing in the closing stages of the third stage after being involved in a multi-rider incident. Phinney crossed the line in an ambulance, receiving medical attention before making his way onto the rostrum. The incident itself was started by Roberto Ferrari clipping Mark Cavendish – the winner of the second stage – causing Cavendish to fall and the rest of the field to stack up behind. Race organisers saw fit to demote Ferrari on the stage results, penalise him on both time – 30 seconds penalty on the general classification – and a 25-point deduction, while he was fined also. Ferrari was remorseful at the time of the crash, but later apologised to Cavendish and other riders involved.
Upon the race's return to Italy, won the fourth stage, the team time trial in Verona. Alex Rasmussen had been placed third after the Danish leg, but he was dropped during the stage and thus it was Ramūnas Navardauskas who picked up the maglia rosa from Phinney, becoming the first rider from Lithuania to wear the leader's jersey at the Giro. Navardauskas held on to the jersey for another day, before Adriano Malori assumed the lead of the race at the end of stage six. Malori had been a part of the breakaway on that stage, before Miguel Ángel Rubiano soloed to victory on the day. The jersey changed hands again the following day, as Malori cracked during the seventh stage, with Ryder Hesjedal coming through to become the first Canadian to wear the pink jersey. He held the jersey for three days, before handing it over to Joaquim Rodríguez, who took the jersey with a win on the tenth stage, a steep finish into Assisi. Rodríguez held on to the jersey the next day, topping the overall standings with the more mountainous second half of the Giro still to race.
LegendJerseys appearing in the table on the left of the page indicate those worn by the cyclist during the particular stage, while those appearing in the table on the right of the page indicate those awarded to the cyclist after the stage. 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 s.t. indicates that the rider crossed the finish line in the same group as the one receiving the time above him, and was therefore credited with the same finishing time.
Stage 1 5 May 2012 — Herning (Denmark), , individual time trial (ITT)
The race commenced with a short individual time trial stage, much like it had done on the Giro's previous start in a foreign country – the start in Herning was the tenth time that the race had started outside of Italy, and the furthest north geographically – when the race began with an individual time trial of held in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 2010. The stage in Herning itself, in length, was relatively flat, dropping only in altitude from the start, to the end. Despite this, it was considered technical due to the nature of the parcours, with several tight ninety-degree turns and cobblestones on several sections of the course before the finish at H. P. Hansensvej. Jackson Rodríguez () was the first rider to depart the start house in Herning, recording a time of 11' 58" for the course, a time that was eventually only good enough for the bottom ten places overall.
Indeed, Rodríguez's lead was short-lived as Marco Bandiera (), 's Jonas Aaen Jørgensen and rider Bernhard Eisel all assumed the top spot as they reached the finish, with Robert Hunter of recording the first time under eleven minutes, as he set a time of 10' 54". Hunter's time held to the next group of riders and it was his team-mate Ramūnas Navardauskas that took the lead; Navardauskas recorded a time some six seconds faster, and was good enough to hold off the rest of the field for over two hours. Navardauskas' time was given a few close calls; 's Jesse Sergent went quicker at the start of the stage – four seconds ahead of Navardauskas to the mid-stage intermediate point – but ultimately faded to two seconds outside of the Lithuanian rider's time. A while later, Brett Lancaster went even closer to the time of Navardauskas for the newly renamed team; he was quicker to the intermediate point than what Sergent had been, but fell outside the time by just one second at the stage finish, having encountered his minute-man Andrey Zeits () in the closing stages.
Navardauskas' stay at the head of the stage classification was eventually ended by 's Manuele Boaro, who had placed in the top ten in individual time trials of both Tirreno–Adriatico and the Tour de Romandie, having set the quickest time to the intermediate point and eventually continued the pace to the end of the stage, recording a time of 10' 41". Geraint Thomas was next to the line for , and went six seconds below the time of Boaro, but both were eventually eclipsed by 's Taylor Phinney, the 2010 world under-23 time trial champion. Thomas had held the advantage at midpoint by one second, but an impressive second half of the course turned a deficit into an eventual stage-winning margin of nine seconds. Thus Phinney, who later stated that it had been a dream to win the jersey, became only the third American rider to wear the leader's maglia rosa after Andrew Hampsten in 1988 and Christian Vande Velde in 2008. Phinney and Thomas were safe from further challenges, but Alex Rasmussen () and 's Gustav Larsson both broke into the top five later on, recording times of 10' 39" and 10' 48" respectively. Further back, 's Roman Kreuziger recorded the best time of the overall contenders, with a time of 11' 02" good enough for 28th position in the stage results. Ivan Basso () and Joaquim Rodríguez () set times within ten seconds of Kreuziger in their disadvantageous discipline; although they both gained a 20-second advantage over pair Damiano Cunego and Michele Scarponi.
Stage 1 result and general classification after stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 9" 3 + 13" 4 + 15" 5 + 22" 6 + 22" 7 + 23" 8 + 24" 9 + 26" 10 + 27"
Stage 2 6 May 2012 — Herning (Denmark) to Herning (Denmark),
Three riders – 's Alfredo Balloni, Olivier Kaisen of , and rider Miguel Ángel Rubiano – advanced clear of the main field in the early running of the stage; the quartet managed to extend their advantage to a maximum of over thirteen minutes around a quarter of the way through the stage. With all the riders close together time-wise following the opening stage, and were mainstays at the front of the peloton, trying to chip away at the advantage of the breakaway throughout the twisting Danish roads alongside the coast. were also prominent towards the front of the main pack, as they looked to protect their main sprinter Matthew Goss. In the breakaway, Balloni guaranteed himself as the recipient of the first maglia azzurra of the race, as he crested the day's only categorised climb in Østerbjerg first, ahead of Rubiano and Kaisen.
The lead advantage at this point – with around remaining – had been cut to less than half of what it had been before; 's pace on the front allowed the gap to fall to just over five minutes on the route. With other teams coming towards the front of the main pack, namely and , the advantage that the trio out front held, continued to dwindle. It was inevitable that the trio would be caught, and sure enough, just shy of the to go banner, the peloton absorbed the breakaway back into their midsts. Parity however was short-lived as an attacking move was launched by Kaisen's team-mate Lars Bak, the Danish rider giving home fans someone to cheer for; he was given space for a time by the main field, allowing to get clear by around 45 seconds as they reached the remaining mark. He stayed off the front for a time longer, and was caught with around to go; and having done most of the legwork to bring him back, after the other teams had only brought Bak back marginally.
The riders remained together as they entered Herning for the final finishing loop of in and around the city, with no riders being allowed any initiative to get a gap on the field, and thus limiting the chances of somebody getting clear in the closing stages. The lap had been passing without drama, until race leader Taylor Phinney () crashed a third of the way around the lap. Once he got back onto his feet, Phinney suffered the misfortune of dropping his chain and lost over 30 seconds trying to fix the issue, but with help from his team-mates, including Danilo Wyss and Alessandro Ballan, he managed to bridge back up to the main pack ahead of the finish. At the front, were starting to set up their leadout train for Tyler Farrar while had hoped to get Andrea Guardini, the six-stage winner at the Tour de Langkawi earlier in the season, in position for the sprint. As the field rounded the final corner, 's Theo Bos lost control – having clipped the wheel of team-mate Mark Renshaw – and crashed into Alexander Kristoff (), and caused a stack-up which reduced the number of contenders for the stage win; 's train was still in position at the front, but Geraint Thomas delivered Mark Cavendish to the line for the incumbent world champion to claim his 31st Grand Tour stage win on the line, ahead of Goss and 's Geoffrey Soupe. Phinney held the leader's jersey after finishing within the main field, while Cavendish took the lead of the points classification from Phinney.
Stage 2 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 9" 3 + 13" 4 + 15" 5 + 22" 6 + 22" 7 + 23" 8 + 24" 9 + 26" 10 + 27"
Stage 3 7 May 2012 — Horsens (Denmark) to Horsens (Denmark),
The third stage of the race was dedicated to Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt – the winner of the third stage of the 2010 edition of the race into Middelburg, Netherlands – after he crashed while descending the Passo del Bocco during the third stage of the 2011 race, and died of his injuries in the crash. A short ceremony, including a minute's silence led by team members – Weylandt's former team – was held prior to the stage in Horsens. As well as Weylandt, the mayor of Horsens, Jan Trøjborg, was also commemorated during the ceremony. Trøjborg, who had been a prevalent figure in bringing the Giro to Denmark, died on 6 May after suffering a heart attack during an amateur bicycle ride in Jutland.
Six riders made up the stage's breakaway, including sixth-placed Ramūnas Navardauskas (), but they could not gather more than three-and-a-half minutes of an advantage throughout the entire parcours, and were all caught by around remaining. As he had done the previous day, 's Lars Bak counter-attacked the peloton as they caught the leaders, but he was caught on the final lap of a finishing circuit in length, and thus setting up for an eventual bunch sprint to the finish line. and were towards the front although Geraint Thomas later sat up as Mark Cavendish was not directly behind him, and in effect leaving him without a lead-out man. brought their men forward inside the final kilometre; with Tomas Vaitkus and Brett Lancaster setting the pace for Matthew Goss, they moved to the head of the pack. Cavendish picked up the wheel of 's Tyler Farrar and they attacked down the outside of the road, moving forward at around remaining.