Juan Sebastián Molano overtakes Alpecin in the sprint of the 12th stage of La Vuelta

La ausencia de viento restó aliciente a la esperada etapa de Zaragoza. Los abanicos no hicieron su aparición y la jornada quedó reducida a etapa de transición con un final al sprint en el que Juan Sebastián Molano sorprendió a Kaden Groves, a priori el máximo favorito para la victoria en la jornada de hoy.

Calma en La Vuelta 2023 antes de la llegada de los Pirineos.

With the Moncayo as a witness, the twelfth stage of La Vuelta a España 2023 started in the Soria town of Ólvega, with a practically flat route that directed the cyclists towards Zaragoza. An arrival that is almost always problematic because of the usual wind in the Ebro valley and that even the race intentionally sought to make a loop to the north of the city in the final part in order to make it as decisive as possible the appearance of the dreaded Cierzo, the fearsome wind from the northwest that plagues these lands.

However, after the DANA that left heavy rains last weekend, we have passed to a situation of impasse so that the wind only presented with light intensity and southeast origin, i.e., contrary to the direction of the race in almost the entire stage.

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In this perspective, almost all the desire for competitiveness disappeared one more day, with a breakaway almost forged from the start and composed of only two riders: Jetse Bol as representative of Burgos-BH and Abel Balderston wearing the colors of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and with a peloton that was controlled by the men of Alpecin-Deceuninck who aimed at a new triumph of their fast man Kaden Groves.

The escapees held on until 44 kilometers to the finish, but shortly after being caught, Jetse Bol caught some air and returned to the breakaway, looking for more prominence for his team and, why not, ensure the prize of the day's combativity, which all adds up for a modest team like Burgos-BH. In any case, he did not go much further and was caught just 5 kilometers ahead.

With 20 km to go the peloton arrived at Villanueva de Gállego, where the bonus sprint of the day was located, which Kaden Groves won without problems and in which Primoz Roglic crossed on the Australian's wheel, gaining 4 seconds in the general classification.

From there to Zaragoza, in what should have been the front of a new battle of the Ebro, harmony reigned. Excellent positioning work in the last kilometers of Alpecin-Deceuninck for Kaden Groves and, already in the last 300 m, when the Australian was about to make the final push after moving away from his launcher, appeared on the right side of the road, like a missile, Rui Oliveira making a portentous launch for the fast man of UAE Team Emirates.

When the Portuguese rider pulled away, Juan Sebastián Molano attacked with tremendous force, so much so that he even pushed the rest of the sprinters off the wheel to win in an uncontested way.

Now it's definitely the turn of the favorites with tomorrow's finish on the mythical Tourmalet in a short but tremendously intense stage in which there is practically no flat terrain.

Stage 12 Classification

1. Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates)
2. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00’’
3. Boy Van Poppel (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) +00’’
4. Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) +00’’
5. Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) +00’’
6. Marijn Van den Bergg (EF Education-EasyPost) +00’’
7. Alberto Dainese (DSM-Firmenich) +00’’
8. Orluis Aular (Burgos-BH) +00’’
9. Hugo Page (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) +00’’
10. Milan Menten (Lotto-Dstny) +00’’

Overall Classification

1. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) +42h51’20’’
2. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +26’’
3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +1’09’’
4. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +1’32’’
5. Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) +2’02’’
6. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +2’16’’
7. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +2’22’’
8. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +2’25’’
9. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +2’50’’
10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +3’14’’