Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) won stage 12 at the Vuelta a España on Thursday after the peloton let the breakway's advantage yawn out to more than 11 minutes on the 181.1km transition stage from Mondoñedo to Faro de Estaca de Bares.
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Geniez took a close sprint ahead of Dylan van Baarle (Team Sky), Mark Padun (Bahrain-Merida) and Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing), and then quickly crashed just past the line as a worker from the race organisation turned his back to the riders in the finishing straight. Geniez struck him with a glancing blow, while van Baarle hit him full on and flipped over his bars. Teuns also went down.
As the leaders were picking themselves up and dusting themselves off, the remnants of the breakaway crossed the line with Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), who took the race lead from overnight leader Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). The Spaniard now leads the overall by 3:22 over Yates and 3:23 over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).