Philippe Gilbert (BMC) took his first win in the rainbow jersey when he won today's 12th stage of the Vuelta a Espana in a tough uphill sprint in Tarragona. The world champion dug deep to reel in Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) and managed to come around the Norwegian just before the line while Vinceno Nibali (Astana) finished safely in the bunch to defend his red leader's jersey.

Philippe Gilbert was about to run out of time in his quest to win a race in his rainbow jersey and only had 10 shots left during this year's Vuelta a Espana. Having already finished 2nd on 5 different occasions during the 2013 season, he finally broke the curse when he won the 12th stage of the Spanish grand tour.

The roadbook suggested that the sprint was almost completely flat but apparently, Gilbert knew better when he asked his teammates to close down a dangerous move from Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) inside the final 15km. That turned out to be a wise decision as the sprint was all uphill and perfectly suited to Gilbert's characteristics.

However, it almost came to nothing in the technical finale when Edvald Boasson Hagen launched a long sprint when he exited a corner, and quickly opened up a massive gap. The Norwegian appeared to have locked up the win when he powered towards the finish line.

With the pure sprinters being on their knees, Gilbert launched his own acceleration and gradually edged closer to the Sky rider in front. A thrilling battle followed but Gilbert had enough metres left to come around the fading Norwegian who held on to second.

Maximilano Richeze (Lampre) was the fastest of the rest as he beat Luca Paolini (Katusha) in the sprint for 4th. A few moments later, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) safely crossed the line in the main peloton to defend hi overall lead.

That lead has been reduced by 2 seconds as Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) picked up 2 bonus seconds in the final intermediate sprint. Nibali is now 31 seconds ahead of the Irishman as he heads into tomorrow's 13th stage which could be a good one for a breakaway.

Starting at 15.00 CEST you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

One for the sprinters

The 164,2km stage was mostly flat and took the riders to the Catalonian coast. With very few chances for the sprinters in the remaining part of the race, everybody expected a big bunch sprint at the end.

Hence, there was no big  fight in the early part of the race and the first attack was the successful one. Cedric Pineau (FDJ), Romain Zingle (Cofidis) and Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural) took off and were allowed to build up a 7-minute gap while Astana set a gentle pace.

An organized chase

At the 25km mark, Orica-GreenEDGE started to chase, the Australian team being confident in Michael Matthews on today's course. Apparently, the sprint teams had spoken together as they were quickly joined by Argos-Shimano and Garmin-Sharp.

Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEDGE), Caleb Fairly (Garmin) and Tom Peterson (Argos) quickly brought the gap down to less than 5 minutes. However, they didn't want to catch the break too early and so they allowed the advantage to grow back up to 5.45.

More firepower added to the chase

Lampre had confidence in Richeze on today's stage and so they added Luca Dodi to the team of chasers. When the peloton hit the day's only categorized climb, Belkin decided to make their contribution by putting Stef Clement on the front. Lampre briefly disappeared from the front but the 5 riders generally worked perfectly together to gradually reduce the gap.

Having passed the 40km to go banner, the peloton got closer to the coastline and so the tension increased. The big teams started to organize their troops near the front and this caused the pace to grow. The gap was now melting away while Clement, Meier and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) kept a high pace.

NetApp in control

When the riders hit the seafront with 25km to go, they passed the site of the day's first intermediate sprint and the gap was now only 37 seconds. NetApp-Endura hit the front with Bartosz Huzarski who did a good job to lead the peloton for several kilometres and keep his team captain Leopold König safe.

With 18,8km to go, the break was caught. In the day's second intermediate sprint 2,8km further up the road, Ivan Basso (Cannondale) moved ahead to pick up 3 bonus seconds while Roche finished 2nd to pick up two valuable seconds.

Martin goes off the front

Moments later, Martin attacked and the peloton briefly slowed down, allowing the German to build up an 11-second gap. An Argos rider tried to bridged across but had no success.

BMC sensed the danger and put Klaas Lodewyck and Danilo Wyss on the front, the duo gradually reducing the advantage. With 11km to go, it was all back together as Cameron Wurf (Cannondale) hit the front.

The GC teams take control

It was now left to the GC teams to set the pace with Astana leading the peloton for several kilometres before being overtaken by Movistar. With 6km to go, Orica-GreenEdge launched their train with Sam Bewley doing a massive job to keep Matthews near the front.

Inside the hectic final three kilometres, Astana was back in control before being overtaken by Alex Rasmussen (Garmin), the Dane trying to set up Tyler Farrar for the sprint. Moments later, Simon Clarke and Mitchell Docker tried to make a lead-out for Matthews but they had lost their sprinter in the process.

Greg Henderson (Lotto) hit the front to lead out teammate Tosh Van Der Sande but it was Boasson Hagen who exploited a turn and a perfect positioning by teammate Rigoberto Uran to open up a gap. Gilbert had to dig really deep to close it down but he succeeded in his mission, taking the first win in the rainbow jersey.

Result:

1. Philippe Gilbert 4.03.44

2. Edvald Boasson Hagen

3. Ariel Maximiliano Richeze

4. Luca Paolini

5. Gianni Meersman

6. Francesco Lasca

7. Steve Chainel

8. Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg

9. Anthony Roux

10. Zakkari Dempster

General classification:

1. Vincenzo Nibali 45.26.06

2. Nicolas Roche +0.31

3. Alejandro Valverde +0.46

4. Chris Horner

5. Joaquim Rodriguez +2.33

6. Domenico Pozzovivo +2.44

7. Ivan Basso +2.52

8. Thibaut Pinot +3.35

9. Rafal Majka +3.46

10. Daniel Moreno +3.56

Points classification:

1. Daniel Moreno 97

2. Alejandro Valverde 90

3. Nicolas Roche 89

4. Fabian Cancellara 61

5. Joaquim Rodriguez 61

Mountains classification:

1. Chris Horner 18

2. Nicolas Roche 15

3. Leopold König 12

4. Daniel Moreno 12

5. Nicolas Edet 11

Combination classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 7

2. Chris Horner 12

3. Alejandro Valverde 13

4. Daniel Moreno 15

5. Vincenzo Nibali 20

Teams classification:

1. Astana 135.30.45

2. Saxo-Tinkoff +0.33

3. Movistar +3.07

4. Euskaltel +9.04

5. Katusha +11.18