2012 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21
Rider Team Time
1 Daniele Bennati ( ITA ) RadioShack-Nissan 4h 17 ' 17
2 Ben Swift ( GBR ) Team Sky s.t
3 Allan Davis ( AUS ) Orica-GreenEDGE s.t
4 Lloyd Mondory ( FRA ) Ag2r-La Mondiale s.t
5 John Degenkolb ( GER ) Argos-Shimano s.t
6 Davide Viganò ( ITA ) Lampre-ISD s.t
7 Matti Breschel ( DEN ) Rabobank s.t
8 Koen de Kort ( NED ) Argos-Shimano s.t
9 Mitchell Docker ( AUS ) Orica-GreenEDGE s.t
10 Grégory Rast ( SUI ) RadioShack-Nissan + 6
Stage 18 result
Stage 12 of the 2012 Vuelta a España was contested on 30 August, and the race concluded with Stage 21 on 9 September. The second half of the race was situated entirely within Spain; starting with a medium mountain stage from Vilagarcía de Arousa to the Mirador de Ézaro in Dumbría, before four summit finishes and, ultimately, the customary race-concluding ride into Madrid. Having held the lead of the Vuelta since the fourth stage, Joaquim Rodríguez of maintained his lead into the second half of the race. On the twelfth stage, Rodríguez achieved his second stage victory after out-lasting his rivals for the general classification on the steep climb to Mirador de Ézaro in Dumbría, putting another twelve seconds onto his lead over rider Alberto Contador. After the breakaway succeeded the following day, Rodríguez achieved another stage victory on the fourteenth stage to the Puerto de Ancares, where the longer climbs started to come into force in the race as part of three summit finishes in three consecutive stages. Similar to the move at the Mirador de Ézaro, Rodríguez accelerated away from his closest competitor, Contador, extending his race lead to 22 seconds. The following day, all attacks were negated, as the breakaway succeeded again; Antonio Piedra took the first victory for at a Vuelta a España, winning the stage by two minutes. Rodríguez and Contador remained together for most of the race's queen stage, the first finish at the Cuitu Negru; on gradients approaching 25% in places, Rodríguez gapped Contador by two seconds, with a four-second time bonus ultimately leaving the gap at twenty-eight seconds post-stage and into the second and final rest day of the race. Following the rest day, Contador turned the advantage around with a surprise attack around midway through the stage. He left his rivals for the overall behind, and soloed to the stage victory. Rodríguez struggled during the stage, being dropped by another one of the race contenders, Alejandro Valverde (), and fell to third in the overall standings behind Contador and Valverde. Contador maintained the lead of the race until the end, eventually winning the race for a second time by 1' 16 over Valverde.