One week after his first stage win at La Vuelta, Lotto-Soudal’s Tomasz Marczyński claimed a second stage victory on the twelfth stage, between Motril and Antequera as race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) lost time after some setbacks.

In the closing 15 kilometres of the 160.1km stage from Montril to Antequera, Froome was forced to change his bike after an initial crash before falling shortly afterwards on a tight corner.

Fortunately for Froome, Wout Poels and Mikel Nieve were able to help pace him back into contention dropping just 20 seconds to second-placed Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and 40 seconds to Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) who had initiated an attack shortly before the incident.

The twelfth stage was only 160 kilometres long and consisted of a relatively flat first part before hitting two difficult climbs in the second half of the race.

After fighting for almost sixty kilometres, fourteen riders finally managed to establish the breakaway. Marczyński and his companions collaborated efficiently throughout the day and their advantage quickly reached eight minutes.

The escapees stayed united on the Puerto del León to make sure they would stay up front and they crossed the summit together. From then on it was less than sixty kilometres to go. Michael Morkov (Katusha-Alpecin) tried to go clear on the descent, but he was reeled in before the Puerto del Torcal.

This second category climb brought the collaboration of the breakaway to an end and Marczyński, Brendan Canty (Cannondale-Drapac), Omar Fraile (Dimension Data), accelerated on the steepest parts, but the trio was unable to drop the rest of the group.

Marczyński then left his companions behind four kilometres from the summit and he enjoyed a comfortable one-minute lead on the chasing group when he came first at the top of the climb with seventeen and a half kilometres remaining. The Pole managed to stay away until the finish line.

Tomasz Marczyński: “It was an amazing feeling to win today, especially because the race started really close to my home place. There were a lot of people I know at the side of the road and that gave me extra motivation. Today was a day during which I really wanted to try something, so I attacked several times in the beginning to make it into the breakaway. I spent a lot of energy, but in the end I was happy to have done so because I felt really good. I thought « Now that I’m here, I have an opportunity to win a second stage, so I’m going to make sure I use it as well as possible ». I knew I had the legs to do it again today and I was in control the whole day.”

“I tried to stay focused and I knew I had to spare my energy for the final climb. I first tried to follow other people’s attacks, and I went clear when I felt that it was the right moment. The breakaway was starting to fall apart but I still had good legs, and when I heard that I had a one-minute gap, I decided to go full gas until the line. With two kilometres to go I got a wrong information that the chasing group was only thirty seconds behind me, so I was a bit worried, but then our sports director told me that the gap was still around fifty seconds and I was relieved. I then enjoyed every metre until the finish line, it really was an incredible feeling. I will keep attacking in this Vuelta, but I first have to recover from today’s efforts. I will see afterwards how my legs feel: if the condition is still there when another opportunity arises, I will go for it. That’s what the team is here for, so my teammates will also try their best in the upcoming stages.”

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