Queenslander Kaden Groves has found the going too hot on a sprinters' day at the Giro d'Italia as he missed out on a second stage win of the race and watched flying Dutchman Olav Kooij take the honours in another chaotic bunch finish at Viadana.

Having set off from Modena, the birthplace of Enzo Ferrari, Thursday's race ended with the race's purest F1 rockets duelling after 172km in the saddle, with Groves hopeful after prevailing in the previous mass sprint denouement on the wet, crash-hit sixth stage in Naples a week earlier.

This time, despite a striking late surge which looked momentarily as if it could earn him his 10th Grand Tour win as riders attacked the line all across the road, Kooij prevailed for his first win of the tour while Mexico's overall leader Isaac Del Toro slightly extended his advantage in the pink jersey.

Kooij owed a great debt to his luxury Visma lead-out man Wout van Aert, whose lung-busting, long effort delivered him towards victory, with another Dutch rider Casper van Uden and Britain's Ben Turner grabbing the other podium spots, while Groves had to settle for fifth behind triple-stage winner Mads Pedersen.

After nearly four hours in the saddle, van Aert, who won Sunday's ninth stage, did a great job from the front to make the key final corner first and lead Kooij into the final 200 metres as he went on to secure the first Giro stage win of his career.

"Only Wout can do such a long lead out like today's," Kooij said.

"I got an extraordinary support."

Earlier, 21-year-old del Toro had picked up a two-second time bonus from an intermediate sprint to pad out his lead to 33 seconds over his UAE Emirates teammate Juan Ayuso and he was 1:09 ahead of Italian Antonio Tiberi.

Michael Storer (Tudor Pro) remains the top Australian in the race in 14th place, 3:22 behind, while Chris Harper (Jayco AlUla) is 4:37 down in 19th.

Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe's Primoz Roglic, the 2023 champion, remains sixth, 1:26 behind del Toro, the first Mexican to lead the race.

Friday's stage 13 will take the riders 180km from Rovigo to Vicenza.

With agencies