Italian rider Denis Lunghi made a successful lone breakaway to win the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia on Friday.

The 26-year-old went off the front with a group of five riders and raced clear in pouring rain with 15km left to clinch his first major career win.

He took five hours, 38 minutes, 17 seconds to complete the hilly 200km stage from Compobasso Chieti in southern Italy.

Austrian Bert Grabsch, of Phonak, outsprinted Italy's Lorenzo Bernucci for second place, less than one minute behind Lunghi.

Austria's Matthias Buxhofer finished fifth with the main pack over eight minutes behind.

German veteran Jens Heppner retained the overall leaders' pink jersey for the seventh consecutive day by finishing in the peloton.

Heppner, 37, leads Italy's Francesco Casagrande by nearly three minutes with eight stages left.

Meanwhile, defending champion Gilberto Simoni, who tested positive for cocaine metabolites in April, was withdrawn from the race by his Saeco team.

Simoni won stage 11 after outsprinting Casagrande.

He blamed the result of the drug test on an anaesthetic injection he had during dental treatment.

Saturday's 190km stage travels from Chieti to San Giacomo.