List of teams and cyclists in the 2012 Vuelta a España
The 2012 Vuelta a España was the 67th edition of the Vuelta a España, one of the cycling's Grand Tours. The Vuelta a España features 198 riders competing from 22 cycling teams; the race took place from 18 August to 9 September, starting in Pamplona and finishing in Madrid.
2012 Vuelta a España, Stage 1 to Stage 11
Four riders – Javier Aramendia (), 's Pablo Lechuga, Bert-Jan Lindeman of and rider František Raboň – provided the breakaway for the day, moving away from the rest of the field after only of racing. They established a maximum advantage of around five minutes in the opening half of the stage, providing no threat to the overall lead of Joaquim Rodríguez () as Lechuga was best-placed at over 26 minutes behind. However, Lechuga was the first of the lead quartet to be dropped as the peloton started to bring the leaders back with around remaining. The breakaway was eventually halted halfway towards the finish, and it eventually resulted in a sprint finish at the circuit, despite trying to break the peloton, with Chris Froome, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift being part of a six-rider group off the front of the field. Ultimately, points leader John Degenkolb continued his good form in the sprint finishes, taking his third stage victory of the week, after a lead-out from team-mate Koen de Kort. Rodríguez maintained his overall lead of the race, by ten seconds, over Froome.The only stage finish outside of Spain in this year's Vuelta, the eighth stage saw the peloton head north from the start city of Lleida in Catalonia towards the Catalan-speaking microstate of Andorra. After carrying out a loop around the capital Andorra la Vella, via the second intermediate sprint point – the first coming just before the border between Spain and Andorra, in the town of La Seu d'Urgell – and the second-category climb of the Alto de la Comella. After several kilometres of descending, the first-category Collada de la Gallina awaited the riders; the climb had an average gradient of 8% – with the gradient reaching 15% in certain places of the climbs – while there were also 18 hairpin bends on the climb, drawing comparisons to Alpe d'Huez, where that climb has 21 such corners.