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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. Rodríguez was third, a further 21 seconds behind, with no other rider within ten minutes of Contador at the end of the race. Valverde took final-day victories in the points and combination sub-classifications, with Rodríguez losing the points competition in Madrid for the second year running after losing out to Bauke Mollema in 2011. ==Stage 12== ;30 August 2012 — Vilagarcía de Arousa to Mirador de Ézaro, The second half of the race commenced with a rolling stage starting in the Province of Pontevedra at Vilagarcía de Arousa, before it made its way into the Province of A Coruña and an ultimate summit finish at the Mirador de Ézaro. Despite not being the highest point of the stage, the Mirador de Ézaro provided a stern test for the remaining members of the peloton, as the average gradient of the long climb was over 13%, with certain sections of the climb reaching 20%, or higher. As a result of the short and steep climb, Joaquim Rodríguez, the race leader for , was considered as the main favourite for the stage – along with ninth stage winner Philippe Gilbert () – as he looked to restore some part of a race-leading margin nearly wiped out during the previous day's time trial. Mini-attacks set the course of the early running of the stage, with the field remaining as a whole for most of the first two hours of racing after several attacks were closed down within minutes. It was not until the mark that an attack was allowed to gain substantial ground off the front of the main field.〔 Four riders – Cameron Meyer of , 's Mikel Astarloza, rider Amaël Moinard and Kevin De Weert, representing the team – were allowed to freedom to create a lead of over seven minutes during the stage,〔 but were gradually brought back and despite the chasing by the peloton, the lead quartet still held a lead of around half a minute at the bottom of the Mirador de Ézaro.〔 Despite an attack by Astarloza's team-mate Igor Antón,〔 were able to set Rodríguez up for his second stage victory of the race, with Alberto Contador () coming across the line eight seconds behind,〔 having been the last rider to have been dropped by Rodríguez, to limit his deficit to thirteen seconds after time bonuses had been applied.〔 |} 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2012 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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