BURY cyclist Simon Yates maintained his overall lead in the Giro d’Italia after Irishman Sam Bennett won a sprint finish on the Imola racing circuit in stage 12 of the event today.

In dire conditions with heavy rain falling for the last hour’s racing, Bury Clarion rider Yates was well protected by his Mitchelton-Scott team-mates as the pack approached the final 15 km on the famous motorsport racetrack.

On another thrilling day’s racing, Bennett took the win from Danny van Poppel and Niccolo Bonifazio.

But Yates finished safely in the peloton – despite a nervy moment when the bunch split 30km from the end – to maintain his 47-second lead in the general classification over Dutchman Tom Dumoulin and Thibaut Pinot of France, who is 1min 4secs behind.

Yates, aged 25, will again don the pink leader’s jersey for tomorrow’s stage, from Ferrara to Nervesa Della Battaglia.

Meanwhile, twin brother Adam Yates is still on course for a podium finish in the Tour of California despite finishing 22nd in Wednesday’s time trial.

Yates, also riding for Mitchelton-Scott, was third going into the 21.5-mile fourth stage around San Jose and the outskirts of Silicon Valley.

Tejay Van Garderen sat eighth in the general classification before stage three, but made up the minute on race leader Egan Bernal and took another 23 seconds to take the yellow jersey.

Patrick Bevin for BMC came in second on the stage, seven seconds behind, while Tao Geoghegan Hart, the British Team Sky rider, came third on the stage, 32 seconds behind Van Garderen.

Yates came in 1:36 behind the American and fell to fifth in the general classification, but he is only 15 seconds behind Hart and 30 seconds off Daniel Martinez in third overall.