2020 Vuelta a Espana – Stage 12 – Highlights, Report, Results
Highlights
Report
Hugh Carthy took his first Grand Tour victory atop the mythical Alto de l’Angliru on stage 12 of the Vuelta a España. Our Prestonian also moved up into third overall ahead of the second and last rest day of the race.
With the shadow of the mighty Angliru cast over the race for the past week, all eyes were on stage 12 of the 2020 Vuelta. A climb seldom used throughout the history of the race because of the punishing gradients that would often lead to riders protesting the race organizers’ decision to use it, the Angliru has cemented itself in Vuelta lore.
The day started, like most days at this year’s race, with a fast and furious pace being set by riders trying to get into the breakaway. Our Dutch rider, Julius van den Berg, was the first rider to gain a gap on the peloton and he would quickly be joined by twenty other riders. The large break had plenty of firepower in it, but they never got much of a lead over the peloton that was being patrolled by Jumbo-Visma and Team Movistar.
The break would ride together over the first three categorized climbs of the day, never extending their gap to more than two and a half minutes. It was on the penultimate climb of the day, the category one Alto del Cordal, that the break got swallowed up by the peloton again.
The run-in to the Alto de l’Angliru was a fast one, with Jumbo-Visma riding hard on the front and whittling down the bunch on the steeps. Carthy and Mike Woods were the two riders left for EF Pro Cycling along with all the main contenders of the race.
It was with three and a half kilometers to go that attacks started to come out of the group of favorites. The first blow was given by Enric Mas (MOV), who was matched by Carthy and Richard Carapaz (INS). As the group came back together on the steepest gradients of the climb, which pitch up to leg numbing 24 percent, the red jersey started to fall off the back with around one and a half kilometers to go. It was then that Carthy launched his decisive attack.
Hugh powered across the line having opened up a gap on the riders behind. His gap of 6 seconds was enough to leapfrog over his closest opponent – Dan Martin (ISN) – to move into third overall in the general classification.
A year and four months after his incredible solo victory at the Tour de Suisse, Carthy is back on top of the podium. What a day to have a great day. There’s one week left in this Vuelta — and what a Vuelta it has been already.
Results
Stage
| 1 | Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycling | 03:08:40 |
| 2 | Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana Pro Team | 00:00:16 |
| 3 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:00:16 |
| 4 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:00:16 |
| 5 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:26 |
| 6 | Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:26 |
| 7 | Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation | 00:00:26 |
| 8 | Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain McLaren | 00:01:35 |
| 9 | Michael Woods (Can) EF Pro Cycling | 00:01:35 |
| 10 | Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe | 00:02:15 |
General Classification
| 1 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 48:29:27 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:10 |
| 3 | Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycling | 00:00:32 |
| 4 | Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation | 00:00:35 |
| 5 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:01:50 |
| 6 | Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain McLaren | 00:05:13 |
| 7 | Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe | 00:05:30 |
| 8 | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:06:22 |
| 9 | Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana Pro Team | 00:06:41 |
| 10 | Mikel Nieve Iturralde (Spa) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:06:42 |
Points
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 147 |
| 2 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 104 |
| 3 | Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation | 100 |
| 4 | Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycling | 75 |
| 5 | Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis | 74 |
Mountains
| 1 | Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis | 76 |
| 2 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 30 |
| 3 | Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma | 27 |
| 4 | Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal | 22 |
| 5 | Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycling | 21 |
Young Riders
| 1 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 48:31:17 |
| 2 | Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana Pro Team | 00:04:51 |
| 3 | David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ | 00:06:37 |
| 4 | Georg Zimmermann (Ger) CCC Team | 00:32:59 |
| 5 | Kobe Goossens (Bel) Lotto Soudal | 00:41:14 |