2/2 Ayuso, 5/12 UAE in Vuelta: Spanish rider owes thanks to teammate Soler, Vingegaard and Visma take it easy

Before the stage, there was a lot of talk about Wednesday's events, when the stage finishing in Bilbao was not decided after massive protests at the finish. It was a tense moment, but on Thursday, things went better at the start on the Cantabrian coast, allowing the riders to start this twelfth stage ‘as usual’.

The major teams made it clear in advance that this was a stage for the breakaway riders, and their message was heard loud and clear. From the moment the starting shot was fired, it was party time. First, there was a group of six, then one of three, then 22, and finally, 18 riders rode on the flat road.

After about thirty kilometers, the Alisas climb—approximately eight kilometers at a six percent grade—had to be conquered. With the differences we saw at that moment, it was the moment for many riders to throw everything into the battle. In several shifts, about thirty riders made their way to the front.

Visma | Lease a Bike retained control of the peloton and ensured that no one in the GC could do anything, while Israel-Premier Tech was the only team to stay out of it, with no one at the front. The big entertainers were the five-man Movistar team, the UAE duo of Juan Ayuso and Marc Soler, and Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen, along with Soren Kragh Andersen and Julien Bernard.

Also joining them were Finlay Pickering, Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain), Mauri Vansevenant, Fausto Masnada, Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana), Louis Vervaeke, Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), Rudy Molard, Brieuc Rolland (Groupama-FDJ), Pablo Castrillo, Javier Romo, Carlos Canal, Michel Hessmann, Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar), Jardi van der Lee, James Shaw, Markel Beloki, Sean Quinn (EF), and Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike).

Other contenders: Michal Kwiatkowski, Magnus Sheffield (INEOS), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Giovanni Aleotti, Nico Denz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Bruno Armiral (Decathon), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla), Jaume Guardeno, Alber Balderstone, Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural), Fabio Christen, David de la Cruz, Damien Howson (Q36.5), Lars Craps (Lotto), Sergio Samitier, Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), Chris Hamilton, Gijs Leemreize, Bjorn Koerdt (Picnic PostNL) Luca Van Boven (Intermarché-Wanty), Louis Rouland, Victor Guernalec (Arkéa), Gal Glivar (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Mario Aparicio (Burgos-BH).

Visma | Lease a Bike steadily increased the lead, knowing that Armirail, at 8 minutes, was the best-placed. At the front, it was clear that Lidl-Trek wanted to take the intermediate sprint with Pedersen and that everything would then come down to the Collada de Brenes: the 7-kilometer climb at 7.9 percent, approximately thirty kilometers from the finish.

Just before that climb, Rolland, Guernalec, Pickering, Shaw, Sheffield, and Hessmann broke away, giving them a 40-second lead at the start of the climb. In the chasing group, Soler positioned himself at the front ahead of Ayuso, and Campenaerts apparently dropped back with Friday's Angliru stage in mind. A little later, green jersey Pedersen also had to let them go.

Soler rode his teammate to the front in one go, where Ayuso was then allowed to break away and immediately took a nice lead. However, that was without considering Romo, who persisted and rode back to his compatriot's wheel. The pair came to the top of the Brenes climb together.

Meanwhile, Visma | Lease a Bike set a steady pace on the climb, meaning there was no battle between the GC contenders ahead of the grueling days to come. This drew even more attention to Romo and Ayuso, who worked well together on the descent towards the finish.

In the background, a large group was formed, but they were no longer a threat to the two in front. With five kilometers to go, Ayuso started to gamble, which made Romo a little nervous. The two Spaniards left it to the final kilometer, in which Ayuso easily stayed ahead of Romo.