2011 Vuelta a España Vuelta announced on 8 September that the 2012 event will start in the Navarrese city of Pamplona. "For details see 2011 Vuelta a España, Stage 1 to Stage 11 and 2011 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21" The Vuelta began with a team time trial in Benidorm. The squad won this stage. Danish General Classification contender Jakob Fuglsang passed the finish line as first and was the first cyclist to wear the red leaders jersey. Fuglsang lost the leaders jersey after just one day to team-mate Daniele Bennati in a sprinter's stage which was won by Christopher Sutton
2012 Vuelta a España of , who finished second in the 2012 Giro d'Italia, Igor Antón of , Jurgen Van den Broeck of , Damiano Cunego of and Robert Gesink of . Riders who could have made the top ten included Froome's Colombian teammates at , Rigoberto Urán and Sergio Henao, 's Bauke Mollema, 's Maxime Monfort, 's Thomas De Gendt and 's Nicolas Roche. For details see 2012 Vuelta a España, Stage 1 to Stage 11 and 2012 Vuelta a España, Stage 12 to Stage 21 There were four main classifications contested in the 2012 Vuelta a España, with the most important being