Today the 12th stage of Vuelta a Espana took place, a 164 km long stage from Maella to Tarragona. Katusha Team almost took another podium place. Luca Paolini took the fourth position in the final sprint, won by the World Champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC).

The stage was characterized by a three-man breakaway: Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural), Romain Zingle (Cofidis) and Cedric Pineau (FDJ). The trio wasn’t able to take enough space, the maximum gap was around 7 minutes, but the chase leaded by the group of sprinters railed them in and the stage ended in a sprint.

In fact, the trio was caught with 18 km to go: after a few km Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) tried to attack and avoid the expected sprint, but his attempt was neutralized. In the final sprint, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) tried to anticipate the rush and seemed to be able to win, but in the last few meters Gilbert managed to pass him. The Norwegian rider took the second position, while Maximiliano Richeze (Lampre-Merida) took the last place of the podium over the Italian rider of Katusha Team Luca Paolini.

“Today I spoke with Purito [Rodriguez] and he told me to try riding my own chances today,” Paolini said to Katusha’s webpage, “so I took part in the sprint, because I knew it wasn’t that easy, but very technical. I was in a good shape today; I had good feelings, so I have to say I’m quite satisfied with the result. Unfortunately I did a little mistake in the last corner, if I didn’t maybe I could have entered the podium. But never mind, tomorrow is another day, we will see what’s going to happen.”