Vuelta Stage 12: Philippe Gilbert overhauls Edvald Boasson Hagen to win in Tarragona

World champion Philippe Gilbert of BMC Racing overhauled Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen this afternoon to win a frantic sprint finish to Stage 12 of the 2013 Vuelta in Tarragona, and with it his first victory since winning the rainbow jersey in the Netherlands nearly 12 months ago. Maximiliano Richeze of Lampre-Merida finished third. Astana's Vincenzo Nibali remains race leader.

This time last year, Gilbert had experienced a frustrating 2012 season until it ignited in September with two stage wins in the Vuelta, and the Belgian went on to clinch the world road championship in Limburg later the same month.

Timing his move perfectly after Boasson Hagen had launched himself for the line as the road kicked up in the final few hundred metres, Gilbert deprived the Norwegian, a past winner of stages at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, of the chance to join the select club of riders who have won a stage in each of cycling's three Grand Tours.

Following his win, Gilbert was asked how it felt to have got that elusive victory: "I have only one word: finally," he replied.

"I’ve trained so hard this year but I’ve remained frustrated by not winning until today. However, I never lost neither my motivation nor the trust by my team, my friends and my family. With the Worlds coming up, I was feeling the pressure and that makes me even happier to win today.

"With Edvald who is one of the strongest guys in the world, you can never be sure to have the situation under control, but I always remained focused on my sprint. I knew I had everything to come back on him. I got a good draft. I still had in mind my defeat against [Zdenek] Stybar [on Stage 7 of the race] so I put in my mind that I could win or lose but I didn’t want to lose by one or two centimetres again."

Looking ahead to the world championship, he conceded: "A lot of pressure will come with this victory. I can imagine a lot of people saying that I can win again. But there’s no need to put any extra pressure on me. I’m not the only favorite. I can easily come up with ten names of favorites: Cancellara, Sagan, many Spaniards like Valverde, Rodriguez, Sanchez, Moreno… I don’t see why I’d be the only favorite.

As for his year in the rainbow jersey, he reflected: "Already when I rode the Tour Down Under in Australia, I realized that everything was different. You look more important in the eyes of the people. It makes everything harder. As the world champion, you have to be even more careful of what you do and what you say."

Boasson Hagen, meanwhile, was clearly frustrated at having been pipped to the line: "Rigoberto [Uran] gave me a very good lead out," he explained.

"We had a bit of a plan but not too precise: I had to attack earlier. I sped up as much as I could. But I couldn’t attack before. It looks like I went too early but I had to try something. I didn’t succeed. I can’t be happy with second. I always want to win.”

Domenico Pozzovivo of AG2R-La Mondiale, lying sixth in the overall standings this morning, had a mechanical problem a little more than 4km from the end of the of the 164.2km stage from Maella.

Luckily for the Italian, due to the technical aspects of the closing kilometres with a series of bends, roundabouts and at times narrow roads posing a potential danger to riders, the commissaires had already decreed that the distance from the end in which riders would not lose time as a result of a crash or mechanical issue had been extended from the normal 3km to 5km.

Stage start in Maella (© Unipublic-Graham Watson)

Missing from the start today was BMC Racing's Marco Pinotti, who came down with a sinus infection, and Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Kevin De Weert, who crashed on a descent in yesterday's individual time trial, suffering several fractures including his right collarbone and left tibia.

The three riders who formed the day's break, Romain Zingle of Cofidis, FDJ's Cedric Pineau and Lampre-ISD's Fabrizio Ferrari had got away early on and at one point stretched their lead out beyond 6 minutes but they were caught with around 17km to go, in between two intermediate sprint points that came close together late on in the stage.

The day's break (© Unipublic-Graham Watson)

On the second of those, Cannondale's Ivan Basso picked up a couple of bonus seconds, but remains seventh on the General Classification.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Tony Martin, who will be aiming to win the world time trial championship for the third year in a row in Tuscany later this month, then went on the attack, but was brought back ahead of that fraught final few kilometres where overall contenders such as Nibali fought to keep near the front of the peloton and out of trouble, none of them - Pozzovivo with that mechanical issue apart - encountering a problem.