2024 Vuelta a España Stage 12 Results & Recap
Stage 12 of the 2024 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
Castrillo wins stage 12
Pablo Castrillo attacked from the lead group with 10.2 km to go on the finishing climb. The 23-year-old Spaniard soloed to victory, eight seconds ahead of Max Poole.
“It’s an amazing victory. It’s unbelievable," Pablo Castrillo of Kern Pharma said. "It’s for the team and for the staff. The breakaway was very hard to make. The other guys were very strong. I was nervous about the finale, but I decided to attack on the flat, and it led me to the stage victory. I thought about attacking with 7 or 8 kilometres to go, but I saw the other guys looking at each other so I went with 10 kilometres. It really is a very special day. I can’t believe I’ve won my first Vuelta a España. I dedicate this win to my team, to my family and above to all to a very special person, Manolo Azcona, who unfortunately passed away last night. I thought about him the whole stage, to win as a tribute.”
The GC group finished 6:29 later, and Ben O’Connor stayed in red.
In an active opening, there was still no breakaway after 25 kilometres. Then Marc Soler, Óscar Rodríguez, Mauri Vansevenant, Carlos Verona, Mauro Schmid, Louis Meintjes, Max Poole, Harold Tejada and Pablo Castrillo joined forces and escaped off the front.
The peloton kept chasing and seemed to make the catch with almost 100 kilometers to go, but Soler didn’t give in. He pushed on, and the lead group survived. Jhonatan Narváez was wide awake and jumped to the leaders just in time. The ten then raced to a lead of over 10 minutes.\nCarlos Verona launched several attacks in the first kilometers of the finish climb, but he was brought back. Castrillo gave it a go just inside the last 10 km while Schmid opened the chase.\nNarváez and Poole jumped from the chase group with 4.4 kilometres to go, quickly rejoining Schmid. Soler also bridged across to them.\nCastrillo kept pushing at the front as if there was no tomorrow. Poole tries to catch him in the last kilometre but fell short. The 23-year-old Spaniard claimed the biggest victory of his career.
In the GC, nothing changed, so Ben O’Connor retains La Roja.\n
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