Juan Ayuso shrugs off exit news to win from monster break on Stage 12 at La Vuelta, Jonas Vingegaard and Tom Pidcock finish together

Just days after accusing the UAE Team Emirates-XRG management of running a "dictatorship", Juan Ayuso was given the freedom to chase victory on Stage 12 at La Vuelta. Ayuso saw off Javier Romo in the final sprint after the pair proved the strongest from a 52-strong break. With some huge stages to come, including the imposing L'Angliru on Friday, the general classification favourites took it easy.

Spain’s Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) pipped compatriot Javier Romo (Movistar) for a second win in La Vuelta after proving the strongest of a whopping 52-man breakaway in Stage 12.

Ayuso swept past Romo in a two-up sprint in Los Corrales de Buelna to secure his team’s fifth stage win of the race as Frenchman Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) rose to sixth in the general classification and Denmark’s Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) extended his lead in the green jersey standings.

On the eve of Friday’s decisive test on the fearsome Alto de L’Angliru, the 145km stage through the lush Cantabria region of northern Spain was something of a GC stalemate as red jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) kept his powder dry along with his big rivals.

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Vingegaard finished safely in the main peloton over six minutes down on Ayuso to retain his 50-second lead over Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE), with Briton Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) a further six seconds back in third place.

The impressive Pedersen battled into the breakaway for a second day running to take maximum points in the intermediate sprint in Barros, with 35km of the stage remaining.

Despite being dropped on the decisive climb of the Collada de Brenes, Pedersen fought back into a chase group and added yet more green jersey points to his tally with a solid fifth place at the finish.

Victorious Ayuso admits he was told 'not to fully cooperate' in Stage 12 finale

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Still without a stage win in the 80th edition of the Vuelta, Pedersen is now 61 points clear of his nearest challenger – Britain’s Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) – in the green jersey standings.

But the day belonged to Ayuso and UAE, whose climbing lieutenant Marc Soler also made it into the breakaway and provided the perfect launchpad for his team-mate on the final climb.

Ayuso’s victory comes days after his unsavoury war of words with UAE team management after it was announced on Monday’s rest day that the 22-year-old Spaniard’s contract with the team would be torn up at the end of the season.

The Ayuso drama has since played a distant second fiddle to the demonstrations and protests that have marred the race since La Vuelta returned to Spanish soil after the Italian start. These came to a head on Wednesday with the cancelation of Stage 11 after protesters spilled onto the finish straight in Bilbao.

While large clusters of demonstrators gathered at the start in Laredo on Thursday – and at the top of the first climb, the Puerto de Alisas – the protests remained peaceful and did not disrupt the race.

Coincidentally, the Israel-Premier Tech team who have been the focal point of the pro-Palestine uprisings were the only team not represented in the day’s 52-man breakaway, which formed after two groups came together following the first of two categorised climbs quite deep into the race.

With five riders in the super-move, Movistar were clearly motivated to break their duck and pick up a stage win. And it was the Spanish team who sent their man Ivan Garcia Cortina up the road after UAE’s Soler had taken the points over the Cat.2 Puerto de Alisas.

Garcia’s move came to nothing, and Pedersen was able to show his strength by winning the subsequent intermediate sprint.

Six riders then went clear ahead of the final climb with around 30km remaining after an acceleration by another Movistar rider, the German Michel Hessmann.

Hessmann was joined by Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Finlay Pickering (Bahrain-Victorious), Brieuc Rolland (Groupama-FDJ) and Victor Guernalec (Arkea-B&B Hotels) in a move which started the climb with 35 seconds to play with.

But shortly after the toughest 16% ramp of the Cat.1 test, Soler led the charge behind, the Spanish mountain lieutenant shredding the chase group and propelling his team-mate Ayuso up the road.

Ayuso powered past the leaders before being joined by compatriot Romo, as Movistar once again used their power in numbers to their advantage.

The veteran Basque climber Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) led the chase behind, but the Spanish duo held a gap of 50 seconds as Romo led Ayuso over the summit, with the impressive debutant Rolland in hot pursuit.

Rolland stayed around 15 seconds in arrears for the descent and the flat run into Los Corrales de Buela, but despite the two leaders starting to play mind games towards the finish, the Frenchman was unable to make it a three-horse race.

Ayuso used every trick in the book to force Romo into making the lion’s share of pulls before he sprung from his compatriot’s wheel to secure his brace of wins and leave his Movistar rival banging his handlebars in frustration.

Rolland held on for third place while a late surge from Victor Campenaerts (Visma) saw the Belgian take fourth place ahead of Pedersen, who led home the chasers 17 seconds later.

Frenchman Armirail was in the group that crossed the line over six minutes clear of the peloton. As a result, Armirail moved from 15th place to sixth, one place behind his Decathlon team-mate Felix Gall, in the general classification.

It is a GC that will no doubt be turned on its head on Friday, when Stage 13 concludes with the brutal summit finish on the legendary Alto de l’Angliru.

Renowned for its double-digit gradients, the climb will be a big test of the GC credentials of Pidcock and Almeida as they bid to wrest the red jersey from the shoulders of hot favourite Vingegaard.

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Video credit: TNT Sports

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