Stage 12

The road

At the start

Peñas Blancas, twenty kilometres up

Six more riders are gone, Simon Yates and Julian Alaphilippe among them. Remco Evenepoel still leads Primož Roglič by 2:41 and Enric Mas by 3:03. Today runs 193 kilometres along the Mediterranean in high-thirties heat and then turns straight uphill: Peñas Blancas, twenty kilometres of it, five longer than when the Vuelta last came here in 2013, the top section at eight to ten per cent.

How it was won

1. 121 km to go

   Eleven minutes and a virtual podium

   Evenepoel has crashed and chased back on, and QuickStep are on the front again — but the break is 11:30 up the road and Wilco Kelderman, fourteen minutes down that morning, is riding into the virtual podium. Nineteen kilometres of Peñas Blancas remain.

2. 27 km to go

   Fabbro's work is done

   The Italian has spent the whole climb spitting rider after rider out of the break — Lutsenko, Craddock, Shaw all gone. Seven kilometres from the top he finally pulls off, and Gesbert immediately attacks, taking Soler and Hagen out the back with him.

3. 36 km to go

   Mas puts on the pressure

   Three kilometres down the mountain the GC battle erupts. Mas presses, looks around to find Evenepoel and López glued to him, and Roglič — already isolated — has to chase back on.

4. 42 km to go

   Carapaz picks his moment

   Rather than trade digs, the Olympic champion waits until two kilometres from the line and goes all-out once. It is devastating. Kelderman is nearest and never gets close — a rescue of an anonymous first half of the race, in his last Grand Tour for Ineos.

5. 5At the line

   The red jersey has the last word

   Behind the winner, Evenepoel takes it up himself with 1.5km left, showing everyone that the crash cost him nothing. Only Mas, Rodríguez, Ayuso, Roglič and López can hold the wheel, and he leads them over the line.

The result