The 2021 Vuelta a España was the 76th edition of Vuelta a España, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Vuelta began in Burgos on 14 August, and Stage 12 from Jaén to Córdoba occurred on 26 August. The race finished in Santiago de Compostela on 5 September.
Classification standings Legend Denotes the leader of the general classification Denotes the leader of the young rider classification Denotes the leader of the points classification Denotes the leader of the team classification Denotes the leader of the mountains classification Denotes the winner of the combativity award
Stage 12 26 August 2021 – Jaén to Córdoba,
The twelfth stage featured a hilly course from Jaén to Córdoba. The first featured undulating terrain before a flat section led the riders into Córdoba for the first passage through the finish line and the intermediate sprint after of racing. after the intermediate sprint, the riders headed to the third-category climb of the Alto de San Jeronimo, which is long with an average gradient of 3.3 percent. After a descent, the riders headed back to Córdoba where they passed through the finish line for the second time with to go. Afterwards, the riders immediately climbed the second-category Alto del 14%, a climb with an average gradient of 5.6 percent, with bonus seconds on offer to the first three riders across the top. The final of the climb averaged 9.4 percent in gradient. The climb crested with left, with a descent and a flat section leading back to the finish line in Córdoba.
Much like the previous two days, there was another long fight for the breakaway as the pace remained high for the first of racing. Inside the final , Mikel Iturria (), Sander Armée (), and Sebastian Berwick () were finally able to establish a gap over the peloton. Five more riders attempted to bridge up to the break, eventually making contact up front with to go. The eight riders attained a lead of around a minute before came to the front of the peloton to control the break. As the break reached the Alto de San Jeronimo, Chad Haga () was called back by his team from the break. With to go, a crash took down several riders in the peloton, including Primož Roglič () and Adam Yates (), but all riders eventually got back up and returned to the peloton. Near the top, Iturria attacked his breakaway companions, but he was eventually chased back down.
On the short valley before the Alto del 14%, the break began to splinter as Maxim Van Gils () went solo off the front, with the peloton closing in at around half a minute down. Jonathan Lastra () attempted to bridge up to Van Gils but both riders were caught by the peloton on the climb. Towards the top of the climb, a quartet of attackers composed of Giulio Ciccone (), Jay Vine (), Romain Bardet (), and Sergio Henao () pulled away from the peloton, building up a lead of half a minute over the peloton at the summit. On the descent, Ion Izagirre () and Matteo Trentin () attempted to bridge up front but they were caught by the -led peloton. The quartet was gradually brought back, with Vine soloing off the front as the catch was being made before the final kilometre; Vine was eventually brought back within the final kilometre. In the final sprint to the line, Jens Keukeleire () led out his sprinter, Magnus Cort, with Andrea Bagioli () on Cort's wheel. Cort held off Bagioli to win his second stage by half a wheel. Michael Matthews () finished third while Trentin finished fourth. The top ten remained unchanged and Odd Christian Eiking () kept the red jersey.
Stage 13 27 August 2021 – Belmez to Villanueva de la Serena,
The thirteenth stage featured a flat parcours with rolling terrain that was expected to suit the pure sprinters. At long, this was the longest stage of this year’s Vuelta. There were no categorized climbs on the route, but it featured some minor lumps. The intermediate sprint took place in Don Benito with to go before the finish in Villanueva de la Serena.
From the start, three attackers, Luis Ángel Maté (), Álvaro Cuadros (), and Diego Rubio (), immediately pulled away from the peloton. They quickly increased their advantage to as much as three minutes before the sprinters' teams began to put riders on the front of the peloton to control the break. With around to go, several teams decided to form echelons in the crosswinds, but no GC contender was caught out. The increase in pace dropped the breakaway's advantage to under 20 seconds, but the peloton eventually eased off and the gap increased back up slightly, with the break hovering at around half a minute ahead. The trio would soon be caught with to go. At the intermediate sprint, with no other rider challenging him, points classification leader Fabio Jakobsen () rode off the front to take maximum points with teammate Bert Van Lerberghe following close behind. With several roundabouts in the final , went to the front to set a fast tempo, which caused several splits in the peloton. The train of Josef Černý, Zdeněk Štybar, and Florian Sénéchal continued to push the pace, with only Matteo Trentin () being able to keep up; a small gap had opened up to the next riders on the road, those being Jakobsen, the sprint train, and the duo of Egan Bernal and Tom Pidcock. Right as the lead group entered the final kilometre, Jakobsen was dropped, with the team turning to Sénéchal as their next sprint option. In the final sprint to the line, Alexander Krieger () came around Van Lerberghe to continue the lead out. Sénéchal and Trentin were the only sprinters remaining, and the former held off the latter to win his first Grand Tour stage. Alberto Dainese () came from the rest of the lead group to finish third. Apart from Egan Bernal () gaining five seconds on the other contenders at the finish, the rest of the top ten remained unchanged as Odd Christian Eiking () kept the red jersey for another day.
Stage 14 28 August 2021 – Don Benito to Pico Villuercas,
The race returned to the mountains on the fourteenth stage with another summit finish atop Pico Villuercas. The first of the stage was flat before going uphill towards the third-category Puerto Berzocana, a climb with an average gradient of 5.2 percent. A short plateau section led to the first-category Alto Collado de Ballesteros: although only long, the climb averages 14 percent in gradient. The descent led to around of rolling hills, with the intermediate sprint taking place in Alía with left, with bonus seconds on offer. With to go, the riders reached the foot of the final climb of the day, the first-category Pico Villuercas. The climb featured irregular gradients, with an average gradient of just over 6 percent and a maximum gradient of 15 percent.
It took almost for the breakaway to be established, with a group of 18 riders going off the front. As , the team of race leader Odd Christian Eiking, set a steady pace in the peloton, the break increased their lead to a maximum of around 10 minutes before stabilizing ahead of the Puerto Berzocana. At the top of the first two climbs, Romain Bardet () sprinted for maximum KOM points to take the virtual lead in the mountains classification ahead of Damiano Caruso (). On the descent, with to go, the break split as Daniel Navarro (), Nicolas Prodhomme (), and Matthew Holmes () attacked off the front. However, a few kilometres later, Holmes suffered a puncture, dropping him from the front. Inside the last , Jay Vine (), who was in the break, came in contact with one of his team's own cars while trying to grab a bidon and crashed, but he eventually got back on his bike. Up front, Prodhomme and Navarro were soon joined by Holmes and Sep Vanmarcke ().
Inside the final , a seven-man group, including Bardet, made contact up front, prompting Prodhomme to launch another attack. Navarro and Vanmarcke tried to bridge up to him but both riders crashed on a curve; both riders would get back up. Prodhomme built his advantage to more than a minute ahead of the final climb of the day. From the chasing group, Navarro, Ryan Gibbons (), and Andrey Zeits () attacked as they chased down Prodhomme. Zeits dropped Navarro and Gibbons on the way to the top, eventually catching Prodhomme with around left. However, Bardet attacked from the chasing group, passing both Prodhomme and Zeits and soloing off the front. Vine and Jesús Herrada () also passed the two riders as they chased Bardet, but the Frenchman gradually increased his lead. Bardet would go on to win the stage, 44 seconds ahead of Herrada and Vine. With his win, Bardet took the lead in the mountains classification with a 19-point buffer over Caruso.
In the GC group, were content to let the break increase their lead to more than 14 minutes on the way to Pico Villuercas. On the final climb, the duo of Guillaume Martin and Rémy Rochas attacked, with Martin attempting to gain enough time to take the red jersey from Odd Christian Eiking (), albeit unsuccessfully. Giulio Ciccone (), who followed Martin’s move, accelerated just as Martin was being caught. After Ciccone was swept up by the peloton, Miguel Ángel López () attacked with left, managing to build a gap over the -led peloton. Inside the final kilometre, Primož Roglič () accelerated from the peloton, immediately followed by Enric Mas (), Egan Bernal (), and Jack Haig (). They came to within four seconds of catching López at the finish line while Adam Yates () lost 12 seconds to Roglič. Despite losing 20 seconds to Roglič at the finish, Eiking retained the red jersey with a reduced lead of 54 seconds over Martin.
During the stage, Richard Carapaz (), who had entered the race as one of the top GC contenders, withdrew after suffering due to fatigue in the high temperatures. After losing time on the first mountainous stage (Stage 3), Carapaz had continued to gradually falter and was 49th on GC at the time of abandonment, almost an hour down on Eiking.
Stage 15 29 August 2021 – Navalmoral de la Mata to El Barraco,
The fifteenth stage featured almost of vertical climbing. The first were mostly flat apart from an uncategorized climb before the riders reached the first-category Alto de la Centenera, a climb with an average gradient of 5.5 percent. Following the descent, the riders immediately took on the second-category Puerto de Pedro Bernardo, which is long with an average gradient of 4.2 percent. A descent and a short valley section led to the first-category Puerto de Mijares, a long climb with an average gradient of 5.4 percent. The descent led to the intermediate sprint at Burgohondo with left. from the finish, the riders began the final climb of the day, the third-category Puerto San Juan de Nava, which is long with an average gradient of 3.8 percent. It crested with to go, with bonus seconds on offer to the first three riders over the summit. From there, the run-in to the finish in El Barraco was slightly downhill.
A furious pace marked the start of the day as several riders attempted to break away. After around , a 25-man group, including GC contenders Sepp Kuss () and David de la Cruz (), pulled away from the peloton. The group built an advantage of nearly three minutes before began to chase at a fast pace. Just before the group was caught, 10 riders from the original break attacked once again. However, several teams in the peloton kept the break in check, with their lead stabilizing at half a minute. Before the group was caught, Magnus Cort () and Pavel Sivakov (), who were part of the 10-man group, accelerated off the front. However, they were also caught by the peloton, with the attacks starting again afterwards. On the first climb of the day, Maxim Van Gils (), Fabio Aru (), and Rafał Majka () managed to build a gap over the peloton. Towards the top, Van Gils was unable to stay with Majka and Aru, dropping back to a group of 20 chasers. At the top, the duo up front built a lead of a minute and a half over the group of chasers and more than three minutes over the peloton.