Keukeleire wins stage 12 in Bilbao as Quintana retains race lead

It was a second stage win for the Australian Orica-BikeExchange team – after Simon Yates' stage six victory in the opening week – as Keukeleire proved the strongest of a reduced peloton after back-to-back ascents of the El Vivero climb on two tough city circuits around Bilbao.

Classics specialist Keukeleire, 27, won the 193km stage from Los Corrales de Buelna by a bike length over Frenchman Maxim Bouet (Etixx-QuickStep) – who banged his handlebars in frustration over the line – and Italian Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo). Another Italian, Kristian Sbaragli of Dimension Data, took fourth place ahead of Spain’s Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) in fifth.

With all the race favourites finishing in the main pack of 42 riders there was no change in the general classification as Movistar's Quintana retained his 54-second lead over Britain's Chris Froome (Team Sky).

The presence of two of Froome’s Sky team-mates – Peter Kennaugh and David Lopez – in the day’s main break raised eyebrows as the race tackled four categorised climbs in the Basque Country.

It was on the first of these climbs, the Cat.1 Puerto de la Alisas, that the seven-man break finally formed after a hectic opening hour or so of racing. Sky duo Kennaugh and Lopez were joined by Frenchmen Romain Hardy (Cofidis) and Kenny Elissonde (FDJ), Italy’s Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep), Colombian Darwin Atapuma (BMC) and South African Louis Meintjes (Lampre-Merida).

The leaders held a gap of two minutes going over the Cat.3 Alto la Escrita with 100 kilometres remaining as Movistar and Astana came to the front of the pack to lead the chase.

Atapuma, who wore the leader’s red jersey for four days in the opening week of the race, crashed on a hairpin bend on the descent and never made it back to his fellow escapees.

Hardy was the next to tail off, the Frenchman getting dropped at the start of the first ascent of El Vivero inside the final 50 kilometres. Lopez was distanced near the summit but managed to fight back into the break, which crossed the finish line in Bilbao with one lap remaining holding a precarious lead of just 30 seconds.

Astana drowned the front of the peloton on the approach to the second ascent as the break was swallowed up with 18km remaining. But it was Belgian Dries Devenyns of IAM Cycling who made the first move on the steep climb – sparking a response by Andrey Zeits of Astana, George Bennett of LottoNL-Jumbo and a cluster of others.

Devenyns – denied victory on the Alto del Naranco by Spaniard David de la Cruz in stage nine – crested the summit with 30 seconds to play with as Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) tried his luck with an opportunistic attack to test his GC rivals.

The Spaniard’s move came to nothing and a seven-man chasing group was also reeled in on the descent before Devenyns himself was pegged back inside the final 2km.

Zeits and Yates were both active in the approach to the finish, but the reduced peloton hit the finishing straight as one before Keukeleire secured the biggest win of his career by launching early and catching his rivals by surprise.

“I’ve been going pretty good in the last couple of days and the sporting director [Neil Stephens] said if I was still there in the final I could give it a crack. I made it over the climb and I felt good in the sprint so I went for it,” said Keukeleire, whose second win of the season came in front of his girlfriend and one-month-old son.

With Yates winning in the opening week and two riders – Colombian Esteban Chaves (fourth) and Yates (seventh) – in the top ten, Orica-BikeExchange have been one of the most successful teams on the 71st edition of the Vuelta.

The race continues on Friday with an undulating stage that features four lower-category climbs and dips in and out of France twice. At 213.4km long, stage 13 is the longest of the race and should well favour a breakaway on the eve of Saturday’s queen stage, which finishes with a summit showdown on the famous Col d’Aubisque in France.