For stages 13 and 14 to be as explosive, dramatic and as consequential to the final outcome of this Vuelta a España as the race organisers and fans want it to be, stage 12 had to be the way it was. It had to be a day for a break so excessive, numbering 53, that it became the de facto peloton and the red jersey group essentially became the gruppetto. The GC riders had to have an unofficial rest day – and that’s exactly what they did.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Juan Ayuso – or Juan A-yoyo, so up and down is his form – won, his second stage victory of the race, and Javier Romo of Movistar finished second, beaten in a finish line sprint by his compatriot in Los Corrales de Buelna. Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida and Tom Pidcock – the race’s current top-three – finished more than six minutes in arrears. They didn’t overexert themselves on the day’s spin through Cantabria – they kept their powder dry for what’s to come.
Tomorrow, stage 13, sees the return of the Angliru, the hardest and most challenging climb in Spain – possibly Europe’s, the signs at the foot of the climb certainly think so. And then the day after it’s Farrapona. Both climbs are hellish, both climbs are unforgiving. Both climbs start relatively benign, both climbs end relatively inhumane.
Going into the Angliru, Vingegaard has a lead of 50 seconds to Almeida, with Pidcock – who temporarily dropped the Dane in Bilbao on stage 11 – six seconds back. We think we’ll know what will happen: Vingegaard’s lead will double, possibly triple, and the entire GC behind him will interchange and fluctuate. But the Angliru especially does weird things and prompts unexpected circumstances. It brings riders to a complete stop. It tortures them mentally and physically, its incessant gradients failing to abate. A rider doesn’t just win up the Angliru; they overcome it, tame its beastly bends and wicked ramps. It’s why at the top there’s a stone monument with each winner’s name engraved on it, their act of conquering immortalised forever.
Will Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike have a commanding lead after the succession of summit finishes? Photo: Unipublic / Cxcling / Antonio Baixauli
Vingegaard has ridden the Angliru before, beaten on the line by his teammate Primož Roglič in 2023, but just because he’s sedated it before, it doesn’t mean it won’t bite back and punish him the next time. If one climb will break Vingegaard and maybe see him lose this Vuelta, it will be the Angliru. And the same applies to the other 13 riders still within five minutes of him.
And once the Angliru is out the way, those heavy, exhausted legs then have to tackle the Farrapona, which in the last six kilometres consistently rears up to double-digit gradients. Yet again, there’s no respite, no time for a breather. It’s 6w/kg+, a heart rate of 180bpm. Pushing, pushing, pushing, until there is no more road. It’s going to reshape the top-10, and could very possibly reorder the podium. In this open Vuelta a España that no one has yet truly wrestled control of, the Angliru and Farrapona threaten to finally put a bit of order in place through sheer brute force.
It’s why stage 12 went the way of the breakaway. You can justifiably begrudge UAE, the sport’s richest and best team, winning yet again, their fifth of the race, but Grand Tours depend on days like this: stages for the breakaway hunters, stages were the GC men can take it comparatively easy, knowing that the following few days promise to be equal part satanic, equal part opportunistic. Let the Battles of Asturias commence.
