After a rough start of La Vuelta 22, Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) took an emotional win on stage 12, a mountain showdown with an unprecedented summit finish at Peñas Blancas. The Olympic champion dropped his breakaway companions inside the last 2km of ascent to claim victory ahead of Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates). He is the first Ecuadorian rider to win a La Vuelta stage. After a crash during the stage, Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) controlled his rivals on the final ascent and even sprinted to the line ahead of all the GC contenders.
La Vuelta 22 is in Andalusia for more uphill challenges, with an unprecedented summit finish up Peñas Blancas. 147 riders start from Salobreña, without Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), Boy van Poppel (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) and Callum Scotson (BikeExchange-Jayco).
Vine, Carapaz, Soler… A massive breakaway
The start on the flat, ahead of a spectacular climbing showdown, inspires attackers. It takes some 50km of battles for a group of 32 riders to break away: Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma), Champoussin (AG2R Citroen), Battistella, Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious), Fabbro, Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe), Caicedo, Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Bakelants (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), Bevin, Goldstein, Hagen (Israel Premier Tech), Oliveira, Rojas (Movistar), Vervaeke (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Craddock (BikeExchange-Jayco), Brenner, Hvideberg (Team DSM), Tiberi (Trek-Segafredo), Soler, Oliveira, Polanc (UAE Team Emirates), Taminiaux, Vermeersch, Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Diaz Gallego (Burgos-BH), Canal, Iturria (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Gesbert, Owsian (Arkea-Samsic).
The gap is stable at around 3 minutes, until it suddenly rises into the last 100km. With 66km to go, Battistella opens up the battle at the front. The Italian youngster has a lead of 1’ to his chasers until Alpecin-Deceuninck and UAE Team Emirates riders work together to get back to him with 42km together.
Evenepoel crashes
At the same moment, Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) goes down in a curve. The young Belgian rider quickly gets back on his feet and the pace in the peloton drops down to let him return with his teammates Devenyns, Van Wilder and Masnada. The gap to the breakaway almost reaches 12 minutes.
The Wolfpack up the ante towards the final climb of Peñas Blancs (19km at 6.7%). At the bottom, the gap is down to 9’45’’. Fabbro sets the pace in the break while Jumbo-Visma and Movistar try to put some pressure on Evenepoel.
Carapaz surges, Remco responds
The breakaway gradually slims down, until Elie Gesbert attacks inside the last 5km. Jan Polanc tries to counter with 4km to go. Gesbert goes again a few moments later. But Richard Carapaz strikes the final blow 2km away from the summit to take victory ahead of Wilco Kelderman and Marc Soler.
In the GC group, Enric Mas (Movistar) has a dig with 6km to go. But Remco Evenepoel is perfectly up to the challenge. The Belgian star ups the pace towards the summit and only Mas, Primoz Roglic and Juan Ayuso can follow him all the way to the line.
