“Trying and trying again, our day will come in the end.” Colombia-Coldeportes’ Sports Director Valerio Tebaldi sounds confident at the end of Vuelta a Espana’s stage 12 (Escaldes– Lleida, 173 km), where Miguel Angel Rubiano fought with pride and determination, nurturing the dream of a stage win until 500 metres to go. It is there that the peloton finally succeeded in its chasing effort, launching the sprint won by Danny Van Poppel (Trek) over Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Tosh Van Der Sande (Lotto-Soudal). Fabio Aru (Astana) easily defended the leader’s red jersey on the day.

A solid 10th place in the sprint by Leonardo Duque made things sweeter for the Escarabajos after a nail-biting finish, uncertain until the very last. Having gone clear after 7 km, and reaching a 5.50 maximum advantage atop the only categorized climb of the day, Miguel Angel Rubiano, Maxime Bouet (Etixx-Quickstep), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Jaco Venter (MTN-Qhubeka) reached the 20 km to go banner with still 2 minutes on the bunch, in spite of the chase led by John Degenkolb’s Giant-Alpecin and Van Poppel’s Trek.

In the final 10 km with extensive straight roads upfront to favor the chase, the five leaders did not give up until the end, in their quest to fight for the stage success.

“Personally, I believed in our chances until the very last. Actually, I thought we would have made it,” Miguel Angel Rubiano confessed afterwards. “At the beginning of the breakaway, we made a good rhythm to take some advantage, but then we handled our effort carefully, keeping a regular pace and saving energies for when the peloton would have started chasing for good.”

“We are putting it all in, racing aggressively and going for any chance in a Vuelta with no easy days,” Rubiano said, “and this time we got close to the goal. We are halfway through the Vuelta, and everybody is fatigued in the peloton: there will be other chances, and we want to be there fighting for them.”

Sports Director Valerio Tebaldi was satisfied with his riders’ approach, even if with a bitter taste in his mouth after seeing Rubiano’s chance vanish on the file line:

“With 40 km to go, when we saw the peloton was having to work hard to close in on the breakway, I really thought this might have been our day for good. After a stage like yesterday’s, to be out there in the breakaway like these guys did is really something, and they would have deserved to succeed. They only missed 500 metres. But I keep on thinking that our happy day will soon come.”

The stage of tomorrow, Friday, will lead the bunch from Calatayud to Tarazona through 178 lumpy kilometers. With three categorized climbs and a slightly uphill finish, it might really be the perfect day for a long-way breakaway.