Colombia’s Juan Sebastián Molano sprinted to victory on stage 12 of the Vuelta a España as Kaden Groves missed the chance of a third win on Thursday.
On the last day before the race heads back into the mountains, Molano (UAE Team Emirates) was delivered by his team into the final sprint and powered across the line. “Thanks to my team for their work. They were amazing today,” the 28-year-old said after the finish.
The Australian sprinter Groves was favourite to win the flat 151km stage from Olvega to Zaragoza, across Spain’s parched plains, but ended up in second place. Molano, who was disqualified from the 2022 Critérium du Dauphiné for striking another rider, adds to his stage 21 victory in last year’s Vuelta.
Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who won back-to-back stages in the opening week, indicated he had suffered a mechanical problem. “In the end we got bumped by UAE who came with momentum and my chain actually dropped. I managed to get it on and had a really strong sprint, but unfortunately we were too far back and it was too late,” Groves told Eurosport.
Molano appeared to catch the Alpecin-Deceuninck riders by surprise and out of position as he surged to the front off the wheel of teammate Rui Oliveira. Groves come back strongly but had enough of a gap to keep the Australian at bay with Boy Van Poppel (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) coming third.
It was an uneventful day in the peloton where the overall GC battle relaxing the pace on another hot day before Friday’s big mountain stage. A two-man breakaway of Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) and Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Seguros) were slowly reeled in, Bol resisting until being swallowed up with 38km remaining.
Surprise leader Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) will begin stage 13 with a 26-second advantage over Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), one minute and nine seconds ahead of the defending champion, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).
The three-times Vuelta champion Primoz Roglic is 1min 32sec back in fourth spot after earning four bonus seconds on the last intermediate sprint, with co-favourite and Jumbo Visma colleague Jonas Vingegaard 2min 22sec behind in seventh place.
Friday’s stage features four big climbs in the Pyrenees with the mighty Col du Tourmalet the climax.
