VaE: Sagan wins again

Peter Sagan continued his Vuelta to remember, by winning Stage 12 and his second of this year’s Vuelta.

Sagan, who is only riding his debut Grand Tour, powered up the uphill finish and beat John Degankolb by over a bikes length. The Slovakian showed he is one to watch, by winning the Tour of Poland and moved himself closer to the sprinter’s jersey in this race. Unlike his first victory, the Liquigas rider was lacking in teammates and had to rely on his pace to get to the line.

Daniele Bennati rolled across the line in third, while a lacklustre Alessandro Petacchi followed just behind. Petacchi looks to be well passed his best, after a very quiet Tour de France and a seemingly poor Vuelta. Probably the achievement of the day, Tom Boonen come home in sixth place. The Belgian today revealed that he has been suffering from a nasty groin injury. A tear in the skin meant he spent the entire individual time-trial on the pedals, which he finished last, unable to sit down with the pain.

Unlike most sprint stages, the peloton didn’t come over in one big group and came across in dribs and drabs. Frederik Kessiakoff’s 11^th place finish, four seconds ahead of Vincenzo Nibali, was enough to move him in to third place in the standings. Many of the big favourites lost some time over the two third category climbs. Nibali managed, however, to gain one second on Bradley Wiggins, as he and Sylvain Chavanel broke free of the group.

With less than 10 kilometres done, a three-man breakaway began to form and they were very quickly followed by another. The best placed, in the GC, of the lead riders was Luis Angel Mate, who state over 40 minutes behind Wiggins. With this, the peloton were more than happy to let the riders go down the road ahead of them. They managed to build up a lead of over 10 minutes, with the last of the four being caught with six kilometres to go.

After some slightly smaller mountains to scale, stage 13 brings the peloton back in to the big ones. There are three third category climbs, but it will be the two first category climbs that will really make life difficult. Expect to see many riders off the back and we may also see a few riders ‘losing’ the tour here.