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It was being a very strange Vuelta a España for Richard Carapaz.

Champion of the Giro d'Italia in 2019 and Olympic gold in 2021, the Spanish soil had not been grateful to him.

He had never triumphed in a stage in our country... Until he reached the top of Peñas Blancas, marked in red on the Ecuadorian's calendar after several weeks falling out of the group of favorites.

With his situation in the peloton, very far away in the general classification, the theoretical leader of Ineos knew that there was only one way to change the image that he was giving in the race: win.

Convinced of this and after having tried in the high mountain stages in Asturias, he got into the numerous and talented breakaway of the day and completed the victory by attacking in the last kilometers of the ascent to Peñas Blancas.

The twelfth stage of the 2022 Vuelta is named after him.

The Malaga peak, with 19 kilometers of eternal and thick ascent, crowned a flat but very long route from Salobreña.

192.7 kilometers of effort that the runners completed before the scheduled time, maintaining an electric pace that some of the favorites showed in the final section.

The peloton allowed an important breakaway, with more than 32 runners and some 'roosters' embedded in it.

There were Jay Vine, winner of two stages, or Marc Soler, who took the Bilbao stage, and talented cyclists such as Champoussin, Lutsenko or Hagen.

And also theoretical leaders of their teams, such as Kelderman or Carapaz.

The escape managed to have twelve minutes of margin while the main group walked calmly to Peñas Blancas.

Quick-Step, who knows that he will suffer in the mountains with Alaphilippe out, did not want to expend extra energy despite the fact that Kelderman, the best classified of the escapees, was 14 minutes behind Evenepoel.

The Belgian, in addition, suffered a fall 45 kilometers from the finish line that, although it did not cause serious injuries, did scare his body.

The 10 minutes that the head of the race had at the start of Peñas Blancas (19 kilometers of ascent) made them aware that victory was in their legs.

And that's where Carapaz grew up.

Controlling the movements of his rivals, especially Kelderman, the Ecuadorian was cool-headed enough not to go out on all the attacks and wait for the right moment to accelerate.

He did it two kilometers from the finish line, when Fabbro, Kelderman's teammate, had already selected the breakaway.

The Dutchman tried to respond, but Carapaz's more explosive pace was too much for him.

In the group of favourites, Jumbo, and especially Rohan Dennis, Roglic's teammate, left the pack with just 30 units after several kilometers of frenetic pace.

But when he couldn't take it anymore, Evenepoel suffered no problems.

The Belgian, protected by two teammates, pedaled well throughout the ascent, including the small attack made by Enric Mas.

The leader of Movistar, third in the general, tried it in the last kilometers of the stage, but seeing that the leader answered firmly, he assumed that the day was not for great boasting.

Roglic, Ayuso and Carlos Rodríguez stayed alongside Mas and Evenepoel, who attacked hard with two kilometers to go to try to drop Roglic, one of his rivals for the podium.

The acceleration of the man from Almuñecar was unsuccessful and he paid for it in the final meters, in which he lost 11 seconds to Evenepoel, Mas, Roglic and Ayuso.

The arrival of the Vuelta to Andalusian lands has opened the second range of great stages of this edition.

First it was Asturias, with the walls of Colláu Fancuaya and Les Praeres dynamiting part of the general classification, and from today it is the south of the peninsula, where the peloton has faced Peñas Blancas, in Estepona, before reaching Sierra de la Pandera on Saturday and Sierra Nevada on Sunday.

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