Slovenian cycling sensation Primož Roglič is still on track to defend his Vuelta a Espana title despite giving up the leader’s red jersey following a difficult mountainous stage 12 on Sunday.
The Team Jumbo-Visma captain has been in impressive form so far in Spain, donning the iconic race leader’s jersey on seven of the days raced so far, his three stage wins cementing his favourite tag as he looks to repeat his Grand Tour victory of last year.
Sunday’s Stage 12 route was deemed the toughest of the 2020 Vuelta, and with good reason: the challenging 109.4km route from Pola de Laviana to Alto de L’angliru included five categorised climbs, the last involving a gruelling 23.5% ascent.
Roglič began the day in red, yet had the same overall time as Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz from Team Ineos Grenadiers from whom he had re-taken the red jersey two days prior.
A 20-man breakaway surged ahead in the early stages of the day’s race, yet were given a maximum three-minute lead before being reeled in by the peloton at the foot of the stage’s final climb.
Britain’s Hugh Carthy from Team Ef Pro Cycling, who started the day fourth overall, opened up a gap with 1.2km to the finish, the 26-year-old holding on to claim his first-ever Grand Tour stage victory.
Second-placed Carapaz still had energy in his legs to make a late dash towards the line, breaking away from Roglič as he crossed the finish 10 seconds ahead of his Slovenian rival.
Carapaz will take his narrow 10-second lead at the top into Monday’s rest day before heading into the last week of racing, starting with Tuesday’s 33.7km time-trial – a discipline usually favoured by former ski-jumper Roglič, who still tops the green jersey points rankings, a healthy 43 points ahead of Carapaz.
“It was too hard a climb for a sprinter,” the Slovenian star said after the day’s stage. “I didn’t have the best day but in the end it’s okay. I’m happy with this result and we go on with the time-trial on Tuesday. It will be a hard one. I will do my best and we’ll see how things are after the time-trial.”
Following Tuesday’s individual time-trial, three days of hilly racing follows, before a final mountain stage on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s final flat stage into Madrid.
Vuelta A Espana Leader Board After Stage 12 (Sunday, 1 November):
- Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers): 48h 29' 27''
- Primož Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma): + 00h 00' 10'' -
- Hugh John Carthy (Ef Pro Cycling): + 00h 00' 32''
- Daniel Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation): + 00h 00' 35''
- Enric Mas (Movistar Team): + 00h 01' 50''
- Wouter Poels (Bahrain-Mclaren): + 00h 05' 13''
- Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe): + 00h 05' 30''
- Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team): + 00h 06' 22''
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana Pro Team): + 00h 06' 41''
- Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott): + 00h 06' 42''
