Pablo Castrillo took the win of his life and of Equipo Kern Pharma’s existence on stage 12 of the Vuelta a España, emerging as the victor after launching a stunning attack from the breakaway 10km from the finish to Estacion de Montaña de Manzaneda.
It was an emotional day for the Spanish ProTeam on the day they announced the passing of former team President and founder Manolo Azcona, with Castrillo paying perfect tribute with his legs ahead of a star-studded break and the emotions pouring out in celebration.
He was nearly denied by Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), who finished in the top three of a stage for the second day running from the break but held on before releasing all his emotions at the finish line eight second ahead of the young Brit.
Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) took third on the day before congratulation his young compatriot after a tough fight from the breakaway and the first-ever Vuelta stage win for Equipo Kern Pharma after becoming a second-division team in 2021.
“It’s an amazing victory, it’s unbelievable. It’s for the team and for the staff,” said Castrillo in his winner’s interview.
“Honestly, I still don’t believe it. I’ve won my first stage at the Vuelta. I’m going to dedicate the victory to my team, my family, and a very special person Azcona, who died last night, and I was thinking about him today.”
While stage 12 brought another summit finish to this year’s Vuelta, the relatively shallow average gradient of 4.7% up the 15.9km ascent saw the peloton take a day off from fighting for seconds.
Race leader Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) safely crossed the line in the large group of GC favourites 6:29 down on Castrillo after letting the 10-man break of the day build the lead with 110km to go.
Second-place overall Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and third-placed Enric Mas (Movistar) similarly finished in the main group, leaving the top 10 on GC unchanged heading into stage 13, with O’Connor maintaining a 3:16 and 3:58 lead over his closest two rivals respectively.
How it unfolded
After action kicked off from Ourense, the third day of racing in a row in northwest Spain brought the third successive stage with a brutal fight for the break, with multiple attacks being launched in the opening 20km without much joy on the dragging uphill roads heading east.
The first big separation of the shortest road stage at the year’s Vuelta came in the form of a nine-man group that got away with 112km to go. It consisted of Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep), Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek), Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty), Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan), Óscar Rodrígues (Ineos Grenadiers), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) and Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma).
But the early action was far from done, with a large chasing group containing Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) trying to close the gap. They, and the group of over 15 chasers, were soon reabsorbed into the peloton, but the break wasn’t let go, kept at only a 20-second lead.
This gap narrowed again on an uncategorised section of climbing inside the final 100km, with the advantage slipping down below 10 seconds with the nine men well within reach of the peloton.
This caused Soler to accelerate and the break to split into two as other hopefuls behind tried to bridge across. The GC teams then locked things down in the bunch and only one rider actually managed to make it across, however, for the second day in succession - Jonathan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) - who joined his teammate Rodríguez and formed a group of 10.
With things now established, the aggressive fighting could end and the 10-man group were allowed to build a huge seven-minute lead into the middle phase of the race, with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale taking control.
The only built throughout the next 50 kilometres, extending past the 10-minute mark as the race continued on towards the finish at the Estacion de Montaña de Manzaneda, with the nearest rider to O’Connor’s lead, Tejada, starting the day over 17 minutes away from the Australian’s lead.
This gap went down to eight minutes in the approach to the final and only categorised climb on stage 12 up to the finish at Estación de Montaña de Manzaneda, with 15.9km at an average gradient of 4.7% on the menu.
Soler made the first move in the break 13.8km from the line, but with the lower slopes not really difficult enough to make a gap, he was quickly marked and reeled in, prompting Verona to counterattack with Vansevenant in pursuit.
After showing strong legs on stage 11, Verona kept a small gap and forced Soler into a bigger response with the Belgian fading in his chase, with the UAE rider bringing the group back together. That was until Verona relaunched with his second burst which secured him a 14-second lead ahead of his nine fellow escapees.
Castrillo launched the next move after Verona was finally brought back 10km from the summit, opening up a significant gap quickly as the group behind began to look at each other.
With the 23-year-old Spanish rider 30 seconds up the road from the break, Schmid was the one who took up the mantle of chasing him down solo in the Swiss national champion’s jersey. Ineos used their numbers behind with Rodríguez pacing for Narváez in the chasing group.
As the kilometres ticked away, Narváez and Pool realised they were running out of time to catch Castrillo, who was now 36 seconds up the road in the final 4.5km, and the pair launched their pursuit. Quickly they caught the faltering Schmid but they still had the Spanish rider to catch.
Soler in his typical yo-yo-ing fashion joined the chase but Castrillo still had a 27-second gap heading into the final 3km, where the gradients reached their steepest sectors, however, he was holding strong with those behind unable to muster a concerted effort.
As he went under the flamme rouge and closed in on victory, Poole jumped and tried everything to close Castrillo down, but the young Spaniard just kept fighting, wrestling his bike all the way to the summit to take an emotional victory.
The GC favourites rolled home together 6:29 down the mountain with no interest from anyone in trying to make a difference on the relatively shallow gradients that characterised the category 1 climb.
O’Connor kept the red jersey safe for another day, however, he will have his work cut out on stage 13 with the fatigue of some brutally tough racing in the legs and a much tougher summit finish incoming.
Tomorrow will be concluded up the 7.5km climb to Puerto de Ancares, which averages a 9% gradient, with the likes of Roglič and Mas almost guaranteed to try something and crack the Australian and cut into his over three-minute lead overall.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
