The 2012 Volta a Catalunya was the 92nd running of the Volta a Catalunya cycling stage race. It started on 19 March in Calella and ended on 25 March in Barcelona, and consisted of seven stages. It was the fifth race of the 2012 UCI World Tour season.
The race was won by Switzerland's Michael Albasini of , after winning the first two stages of the race and maintained his advantage all the way to the end of the race. Albasini won the general classification by 90 seconds over runner-up Samuel Sánchez of the team. Third place was taken by 's Jurgen Van den Broeck, after thirteen riders finished the race with a deficit of 92 seconds to Albasini; Van Den Broeck recorded the lowest cumulative score for his stage positions, and as a result, was placed highest of the group of riders. In the race's other classifications, Tomasz Marczyński of won the white jersey for the most points gained in intermediate sprints, while rider Chris Anker Sørensen won the King of the Mountains classification, and finished at the head of the teams classification.
Teams As the Volta a Catalunya was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Five other squads were given wildcard places into the race, and as such, formed the event's 23-team peloton.
The 23 teams that competed in the race were:
Route +Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1 19 March Calella to Calella 2 20 March Girona to Girona 3 21 March La Vall d'en Bas to Mountain stage 4 22 March Tremp to Ascó 5 23 March Ascó to Manresa 6 24 March Sant Fruitós de Bages to Badalona 7 25 March Badalona to Barcelona
Stages
Stage 1 19 March 2012 — Calella to Calella,
Following an early, yet unsuccessful, attack from Cédric Pineau of , a quintet of riders – 's Michael Albasini, rider Ben Gastauer, Timmy Duggan of , 's Nicolas Edet and rider Anthony Delaplace – made the primary breakaway from the field, just as they moved into the village of Arbúcies for the first intermediate sprint of the race. The five riders managed to extend their advantage over the main field to in excess of six minutes at one point during the stage, which was run in largely dry conditions apart from the second categorised climb – of three during the stage – of the first-category Coll Formic, where the riders were met by wet conditions with hail also falling. The breakaway's advantage had been cut to around three and a half minutes as the main field moved over the climb at Coll Formic, but the quintet managed to put more time into the pack, after their pace relented slightly. Their gap almost topped four minutes once again, before and the forced the cause from the field, and again the time between the groups dwindled.
By the time that the field had reached the final climb of the day, the Alt de Collsacreu. At this moment, Albasini stepped up his pace, soloed off the front of the gruppetto and quickly distanced himself from his four companions, who had split into two groups of two riders. At first, Delaplace and Edet tried to stay with Albasini, but could not; while Duggan and Gastauer decided not to follow the French duo, and would try to fend off the main field if they could. picked up the reins on the front of the peloton, and looked to close in on Duggan and Gastauer, who had fallen around a minute behind Albasini with around remaining. Albasini remained well clear into Calella and eventually claimed his first victory for the team, and the team's second in three days after Simon Gerrans' win in Milan–San Remo the previous Saturday. As well as leading the general classification, Albasini held the lead of the mountains classification, after leading over two of the three climbs. Delaplace finished second, 42 seconds in arrears, after dropping Edet in the closing kilometres; Edet finished around half a minute later in third place. The peloton was not far behind; led over the line 18 seconds later by 's Kenny van Hummel, after Duggan and Gastauer – the only rider to be passed by van Hummel – were caught in the finishing straight.
Stage 1 Result and General Classification after Stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 42" 3 + 1' 14" 4 + 1' 32" 5 + 1' 32" 6 + 1' 32" 7 + 1' 32" 8 + 1' 32" 9 + 1' 32" 10 + 1' 32"
Stage 2 20 March 2012 — Girona to Girona,
Three riders – 's Jordi Simón, rider Julián Sánchez and Cyril Bessy of – advanced clear of the main field after of the stage, and managed to extend their advantage to a maximum of over seven minutes at one point during the early running of the stage. Noting the peloton's inability to recapture the entire breakaway on the opening stage, established themselves on the front of the pack; protecting their overall leader Michael Albasini from losing any potential time on the road. As such, by the time the race had reached the mid-stage feeding area, the trio out front only held a lead of around two minutes over the advancing peloton. 's Alejandro Valverde took a tumble as the race was passing through; his front wheel hit a discarded drinks bottle, and crashed into a kerb. He would ultimately lose over two minutes on the day, after failing to make the junction back to the field.
then assumed the leadership of the peloton, looking to help with Levi Leipheimer's bid for the overall race as a whole; in a reverse to what occurred at Paris–Nice earlier in the month where initiated the pace when Leipheimer fell three times during the penultimate stage. The breakaway's gap out front quickly dwindled, and were caught with over left to travel in the stage. This allowed for the Alt dels Angels, a first-category climb from the end, to take a greater presence in the stage's running, increasing the chances of riders going off the front to attack. After Leipheimer and Tejay van Garderen () made failed bids to get away, three riders – 's Damiano Cunego, rider Dan Martin and Matteo Carrara of – went clear on the descent and held station off the front until the closing stages. A reduced peloton contested the sprint in Girona; Bradley Wiggins tried to set the sprint up for his team-mate Rigoberto Urán, but Albasini surprised the field by accelerating clear in the finishing straight and picked up his second successive stage victory. Urán finished third behind 's Dario Cataldo.
Stage 2 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 1' 32" 3 + 1' 32" 4 + 1' 32" 5 + 1' 32" 6 + 1' 32" 7 + 1' 32" 8 + 1' 32" 9 + 1' 32" 10 + 1' 32"
Stage 3 21 March 2012 — La Vall d'en Bas to ,
Originally scheduled to be held over from La Vall d'en Bas to Port Ainé, the race's queen stage was shortened to due to snow on the hors-categorie climbs of the Port del Cantó and the finish climb at Port Ainé. As such, both climbs were removed from the itinerary, and the stage finish was moved to Canturri, on the lower slopes of the Port del Cantó. This occurred after the start of the stage, which had commenced in cold, wet conditions; several riders elected not to take the start including 's Alejandro Valverde after his stage 2 crash, and rider Daniel Navarro, who had been ill for the previous week. An early crash, inside the opening of the parcours, saw several riders hit the ground, including 's Ivan Basso, rider Julian Dean and František Raboň of . All three abandoned, with Dean later taken to hospital in Valencia for surgery, after breaking his leg in a collision with a parked car.
The stage's primary breakaway commenced forming at the mark, on the ascent of the first climb, the first-category Alt de Coubet. 's Chris Anker Sørensen went clear with rider Johann Tschopp before they were joined on the descent by Janez Brajkovič of . This trio were eventually by another nine riders from two distinct groups, with the best-placed of these riders being Mikaël Cherel () – who after two solid finishes in the opening two stages of the race – in third position in the general classification. The break quickly extended their gap to the main field, reaching a maximum of nigh on eleven minutes at the point of the stage. The inclement weather failed to relent, forcing organisers to deploy snow-clearing machinery at the finish, in a bid to run the stage at its full length. Ultimately, their bid to do so was futile as race organisers could not guarantee a safe finish into Port Ainé, a ski station in the Pyrenees. The finish was moved to a point on the lower slopes of Port del Cantó, and thus eliminating any opportunity for the main field to contest for the stage victory; the twelve-man breakaway were just away from the point as the decision was made to do so.
With the finish marked out by just a solitary line on the road, Brajkovič won the sprint for the line ahead of rider Michał Gołaś and Matteo Carrara of . The peloton came across the line around eight minutes later, having cut into the lead in the false hope that the stage would run its full parcours. Several hours after the stage was completed, it was announced that the timings would not count towards the general classification, but points towards the mountains and sprints classifications would count. This meant that – while losing the lead of the mountains classification to Sørensen – rider Michael Albasini maintained his 92-second advantage at the head of the race, and also assumed the lead of the sprints classification after previous leader Anthony Delaplace (), like 32 other riders, abandoned during the stage. Among the other abandonments were Bradley Wiggins and Richie Porte of , rider Tejay van Garderen and trio Andy Schleck, Ben Hermans and Tiago Machado.
The announcement of neutralising the time gaps came as no surprise to many of the riders and team members. Stage winner Brajkovič described the stage and its conditions as the "hardest day of his life", while runner-up on the day Gołaś noted that it was not until he saw race officials that he knew where the finish of the stage was. Race leader Albasini's team director at , Neil Stephens, also described the announcement as a fair decision, having encountered a similar situation during the 1995 running of the event, when he was riding for the team. Fellow team director José Azevedo () was more frank with his comments; he expressed dismay at the late nature of being told about the stage's shortening, and anger at other riders for failing to wait for crashed riders in the early stages. The order of riders placed 3rd to 7th were subsequently revised on the UCI's official results service, but as of May 2012 remained unchanged on the event organisers' site.
Stage 3 ResultNo official times recorded. RiderTeam 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 General Classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 1' 32" 3 + 1' 32" 4 + 1' 32" 5 + 1' 32" 6 + 1' 32" 7 + 1' 32" 8 + 1' 32" 9 + 1' 32" 10 + 1' 32"
Stage 4 22 March 2012 — Tremp to Ascó,
Following on from the tumultuous third stage, the fourth stage began without two of the overnight top ten riders in the general classification. Fifth-placed Arnold Jeannesson () failed to start the stage due to a knee injury, as a result of a crash during the third stage. He was joined on the sidelines by eighth-placed Jakob Fuglsang of , who fractured his scaphoid on the same stage and as a result had to abandon the race on his 27th birthday. The stage itself was also delayed from its original start time after five teams were snowed in on the Port Ainé, following yesterday's racing. Once the stage commenced, rider Julián Sánchez made it into the breakaway for the second time in three days, with represented once again, this time through Jesús Rosendo; and the breakaway was completed by Belgium's Romain Zingle, riding for the team.