2022 Vuelta a España Stage 12 Results & Recap
Stage 12 of the 2022 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Carapaz wins stage 12
Richard Carapaz (IGD) won stage 12 of the Vuelta a Espana after a late attack on the final Cat. 1 climb to Peñas Blancas. The Ecuadorian finished the mountain top stage a few seconds ahead of Wilco Kelderman (BOH) and Marc Soler (UAD) to win the first Vuelta stage of his career, and the first rider from his country to ever do so.
"To be honest, I feel happiness, because we came here with a goal and the circumstances weren’t in our favour," Carapaz said. "We had the focus now on trying to win a stage, and I’m really happy with that. Bora were doing almost all the work and I waited for the last moment. I know, at 2km for the finish, that the last 1,8 kilometres were so hard, and very regular. I knew I had one move left and I made the most out of. I’m very happy. Mostly because the feelings I hoped for from the start are back. I have to enjoy it. I knew I wasn’t coming with the best condition after crashing at home. When we arrived in Spain after the Netherlands, we hit the mountains and it was a bit complicated for me. I moved on mentally to focus on a stage win. I knew I could do it in La Vuelta. Other years, I came 2nd, 3rd… It’s the first time, so I’m moved. There are still many stages to keep trying. We have to make the most of our current level."
Despite crashing around a bend earlier in the stage, Remco Evenepoel (QST) bounced back to display absolute control over his GC rivals up the final climb and sprinted to the line ahead of Enric Mas, Primoz Roglic and Juan Ayuso.
"It’s just my leg but it’s fine I think, my bike is much worse than myself," Evenepoel said. "It was a super slippery corner. The motorbikes were slipping as well and slowing down so that’s why I wanted to cut the corner but it was a bit too much. I felt good on the climb. I knew it was a climb to just follow and in the last hundreds of metres I just went all out because I felt I still had something left. It was a good feeling, that’s what’s important. Except for the crash, it was the scenario we wanted. Everybody was strong, Rémi [Cavagna] did a really good job riding on the front for three quarters of the race. Chapeau to him, also to Dries [Devenyns] because he drove perfectly on the climb. Now I need to heal the wounds an try to recover tomorrow as it will be a sprint stage."
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