Danny van Poppel recovers to win stage 12 as Fabio Aru retains lead

An untimely puncture inside the last 10km of the 173km stage from Escaldes-Engordany in Andorra was not enough to derail 22-year-old van Poppel, who was paced back by his Trek Factory Racing team-mates just in time to contest a nail-biting bunch sprint finish.

Maxim Bouet (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Jaco Venter (MTN-Qhubeka) - the remnants of a five-man break which rode ahead of the peloton since the ninth kilometre - were only caught by the rampaging pack with 300 metres remaining.

Van Poppel - the son of former cycling great Jean-Paul van Poppel - proved to be a chip off the old block by powering to an emphatic win ahead of Orica-GreenEdge's Impey and Belgian Tosh van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal).

Another Belgian, Nikolas Maes (Etixx-QuickStep), was fourth before John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) crossed the line for fifth place, the German classics specialist hitting his handlebars in frustration after letting another big chance of an elusive Vuelta victory go begging.

Italy's Fabio Aru (Astana) finished safely in the pack to retain his 57-second lead over Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) in the general classification, with double stage winner Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) a further two seconds back in third place.

Van Poppel’s experienced team-mate Frank Schleck was full of praise for his young colleague and their fellow Trek riders after the team’s second victory in Spain.

“That was pretty cool especially for the guys working hard for the whole day – Markel [Irizar] and Haimar [Zubeldia]. I was there when he [Danny] had a flat tyre with 10km to go and in a way, the pressure was suddenly off, he let go and it played into his hands,” said Schleck.

“We had the whole team working for him at the back of the peloton – it’s pretty nice to be part of a win like that.”

Frenchman Bouet and South African Venter joined forces with Colombian Miguel Ángel Rubiano (Team Colombia), Frenchman Alexis Gougeard (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Dutch stage seven winner Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo) in a break that formed after 9km.

The leaders held a gap of over five minutes as they crested the summit of the major test of the day, the Cat.2 Coll de Bóixols with 120km remaining.

The Giant-Alpecin team of Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix winner Degenkolb marshalled the peloton and kept the lead at around the four-minute mark following the long descent, with a bunch gallop very much on the cards for the finish in Lleida.

Trek Factory Racing took over the reins on the front of the pack with 60km remaining, soon to be joined by a couple of Lampre-Merida riders working for their man Maximiliano Richeze.

With the advantage of the break standing at 2:30 with 45km remaining the chase became complacent as Giant-Alpecin dropped back, perhaps in protest at having at least two men on the front at all time.

And although the gap was only 1:30 with 20km remaining, there was growing belief that the break may pull off a coup and defy the rules of logic to contest the win.

The break’s chances increased when van Poppel pulled up with a flat tyre with 8km remaining. With Trek suddenly absent from the front and Giant having apparently imploded, the onus was on Lampre to take over the reins.

The run into Lleida was a messy affair as no one team controlled proceedings, with the BMC team of birthday boy Jean-Pierre Drucker dipping their toes in alongside Orica-GreenEdge but neither outfit prepared to dive in.

When Venter rode clear of the break with two kilometres remaining, it looked like it could be his day. Bouet soon joined and the pair held a slender gap of about 10 seconds going under the kite.

But Trek finally spirited their man back to the fold and Van Poppel was able to propel himself to the line once the two final escapees were swallowed up on the slightly uphill home straight.

Van Poppel still has a long way to go until he can match his father’s tally of nine Vuelta stage wins – but this was the perfect start.

COMING UP: Friday’s 177km stage 13 from Calatayud to Tarazona has breakaway written all over its undulating route, which features three categorised climbs and a small but punchy uphill finish.