Riomaggiore, Italy  - Russian Denis Menchov on Thursday won the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia and took over the leaders' jersey from Danilo di Luca.

The Rabobank cyclist won the 60.6 kilometre-long time-trial from Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore in a time of 1:34.29 hours, beating American Astana cyclist Levi Leipheimer by 20 seconds and Italian Stefano Garzelli by more than a minute.

Menchov managed to gain one minute 54 seconds on di Luca and will go into Friday's 13th stage with a 34 second advantage over the LPR Brakes cyclist.

Other favourites like Ivan Basso suffered during the time trial and the Italian lost more than two minutes on Menchov.  (dpa)