Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: Who won Vuelta a Espana in 2012?
The race was won for the second time by Alberto Contador of Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank, taking his first overall victory since returning from a doping suspension.[3] Contador, who won the seventeenth stage of the race after a solo attack, won the general classification by 1' 16" over runner-up Alejandro Valverde of the Movistar Team team. Two-time stage winner Valverde also won two sub-classifications on the final day; by taking a sixth-place finish on the stage into Madrid, he overhauled the points tally of Joaquim Rodríguez (Team Katusha) in that classification, and their resultant switch of positions, allowed Valverde to take the combination classification – where the lowest cumulative score across the general, points and mountains classifications wins – as well.[4]
Contador won his second Vuelta in 2012. American Chris Horner, became the oldest Grand Tour winner at the age of 41, when he won the Vuelta in 2013. Contador won the race for the third time in 2014, as he beat Chris Froome by 1' 10". Fabio Aru won in 2015, taking the red jersey from Tom Dumoulin in the second-to-last stage thanks to an excellent team strategy. Tactics played a key role in Nairo Quintana's 2016 win, when he aligned with Contador on the fifteenth stage and blew the race apart. In 2017, after six attempts which included three second-place finishes, Froome finally won the race that had eluded him and completed the rare Tour-Vuelta double, having just come off of his fourth Tour de France victory. A year later, after a heartbreaking final few days in the Giro d'Italia, Simon Yates won the 2018 edition, giving Great Britain its second consecutive Vuelta win and becoming the first country to win all three Grand Tours in the same year with three different riders, and only the third instance that one nation has one all three Grand Tours in a season (the last occurring ten years ago when Spain's Alberto Contador won the 2008 Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, and Carlos Sastre won the Tour de France). A.  Roberto Heras was the winner at the podium ceremony in Madrid on the last day of the 2005 Vuelta a España, but subsequently was found to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during stage 20 of the race. The Spanish cycling federation found him guilty of using Erythropoietin during the race and stripped him of his title, awarding the win to Denis Menchov. However, in 2012 Roberto Heras was reinstated as the 2005 Vuelta a España champion when Spain's supreme court ruled in favor of Heras, citing procedural violations relating to the storage and handling of the urine samples.
General
Lander raced at the UCI Continental level for in the 2008, 2009 and 2012 seasons, and for in the 2010 and 2011 seasons. He joined the World Tour team for the 2013 and 2014 seasons, riding in the 2013 Vuelta Espana.
In 2000, Petacchi signed for Fassa Bortolo. He got his breakthrough, when he won his first Grand Tour stage in Vuelta a Espana on stage 7 in a sprint where he beat Giovanni Lombardi in a bunch sprint. He was initially assigned as Fabio Baldato’s lead-out man at that year’s Vuelta. He won another stage later in stage 11. He ended the year with 9 victories.
Roberto Heras holds the record of most victories with four, although his win in 2005 was only official after a successful appeal in court overturning his initial disqualification for EPO in the 2005 race. Alberto Contador and Tony Rominger have both won three times. Spanish cyclists have won the most Vueltas; 23 cyclists have won 29 Vueltas between them. French cyclists are second with nine victories and Belgian riders are third with seven wins. The current champion is Simon Yates of , who won the 2018 Vuelta a España.
Born in Etxarri-Aranatz, Navarre, Verdugo has not yet won any races, but made his Giro d'Italia debut in 2005 (86th) and his Tour de France debut in 2006 (75th). His highest placing in the Tour de France was in 2011 (25th), however despite completing it an impressive 6 times he has never had a top ten finish in any stage of the race. Considered a reliable team rider, his is best individual tour performance was on stage 16 in the 2007 Tour de France where in a breakaway he gained enough points in the mountains classification to finish 11th overall in Paris. He finished 11th overall in the 2012 Vuelta a Espana, marking his best grand tour finish yet.
The 39th "Vuelta a España" (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from 17 April to 6 May 1984. It consisted of 19 stages covering a total of 3,593 km, and was won by Éric Caritoux of the Skil-Sem cycling team. Caritoux, a second year professional, had shown his climbing talent earlier that year by winning the stage up the Mont-Ventoux of the 1984 Paris–Nice but he did not enter the 1984 Vuelta a Espana thinking of the overall classification. On the 12th stage to Lagos de Covadonga an area in Asturias which includes one of the most important climbs of the Vuelta, Caritoux finished second behind the German Raimund Dietzen who was also riding his first Vuelta a España. Caritoux took the leader’s jersey from Pedro Delgado. Alberto Fernández was 32 seconds behind Caritoux in the general classification at that stage. Fernández had been third the year previously in the Vuelta a España and in the Giro d'Italia. On the stage 14 mountain time trial, Caritoux lost five seconds. Caritoux lost further time in the final individual time trial but still managed to finish the race with a slender lead of six seconds over Fernández, the smallest margin in the history of the Vuelta a España. Fernández died later on in 1984.
Francisco José Pacheco Torres (born 27 March 1982) is a former Spanish professional road bicycle racer. In 2005, he became the 3rd in the Spanish time trial championship for amateurs. He also finished third overall in the Vuelta a Cordoba. In the 2006 season he has won two stages at the Vuelta an Alicante and he finished third at the Trofeo Guerrita. Later, he had even won a section in each Vuelta a Navarra, in the Vuelta a León, at the Vuelta a Palencia and Vuelta a Salamanca. In 2007 he made his professional debut with the Portuguese team Barbot-Halcon until 2008. Pacheco took his first year there he won a stage of the Volta a Portugal and he joined Contentpolis-Ampo 
in 2009. He also took the Greek cycling team Kastro Team in 2010 and Christina Watches-Dana in 2012 until 2013. On 31 December 2013, he announced his retirement from cycling at the end of season after his six-year career.
Rodríguez recorded notable results included fourteen Grand Tour stage victories, and five overall podium placings: second places at the 2012 Giro d'Italia and the 2015 Vuelta a España, and third place finishes at the 2010 Vuelta a España, the 2012 Vuelta a España and the 2013 Tour de France. He also finished first in the UCI world rankings in 2010, 2012 and 2013, and won classics such as the La Flèche Wallonne and the Giro di Lombardia twice (2012 and 2013). He also won stage races including the Volta a Catalunya twice (2010 and 2014), the 2015 Tour of the Basque Country and the 2011 Vuelta a Burgos.
In the 2017 Vuelta a Espana, Marczynski achieved his greatest successes to date in Grand Tours by winning two stages, the 6th and the 12th. In July 2018, he was named in the start list for the 2018 Tour de France.
The route of the 2017 Vuelta a Espana was revealed by Unipublic on 12 January 2017. Keeping with the tradition of the past few years, the race started off with a team time trial. However, the race started in France, just the third time in history that the Spanish Grand Tour began outside of its home country.
Joop Zoetemelk rode for the team from 1970-1972 finishing on the podium twice in the Tour de France during this span. He also finished 5th in the 1972 Tour de France and won the King of the Mountains classification in the 1971 Vuelta a Espana.
The team rode in 1989 and 1990 with it Soviet riders and introduced riders such as Andrei Tchmil, Piotr Ugrumov, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Viktor Klimov, Dimitri Konyshev, Vladimir Poulnikov, Ivan Ivanov to the sport. Over the two years the team had much success and surprised the cycling world. Klimov held the leaders jersey for five days in the 1990 Vuelta a Espana. Poulnikov finished fourth overall in the 1990 Giro d’Italia. Asyat Saitov won a stage in the 1990 Vuelta a España, Konyshev finished second in the 1989 UCI Road World Championships road race in Chambéry, France.
Mathias Frank (born 9 December 1986) is a Swiss road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He is considered as a strong climber, having finished 8th overall in the 2015 Tour de France, and winning a breakaway stage in the 2016 Vuelta a Espana.
He signed with the Continental level in 2012. He signed for as a trainee from August 2014, with a full professional contract from 2015. He was named in the startlist for the 2016 Vuelta a España. He also started the 2017 Vuelta a Espana but crashed out with a broken shoulder on stage 7.
A professional for five seasons, Ovies is best known for winning the mountain classification at the 1977 Giro d'Italia, and the 1980 Vuelta Ciclista a Aragón. His best placing on a grand tour was 12th at the 1980 Vuelta a Espana.
Lastras won a stage in the 2003 Tour de France and picked up two stages in the 2002 Vuelta a España. In 2005 he won stage 8 at Tour de Suisse. He also won the Vuelta a Burgos in 2003. His idols are Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. He has a resting heart rate of 45bpm, and is 1.83m tall weighs 68 kg. In 2007 the team had announced that they would let him go, but after a stage win in Eneco Tour his contract was renewed for another year. Lastras had later success in overall classification in Vuelta a Andalucía and second place in the Giro d'Italia stage. In 2011, Lastras won stage 3 of La Vuelta de Espana.
The 2012 Vuelta a Castilla y León was the 27th edition of the Vuelta a Castilla y León cycle race and was held on 13 April to 15 April 2012. The race started in Salamanca and finished in Segovia. The race was won by Javier Moreno.
Juan Antonio Flecha, Chris Froome, Sergio Henao, Danny Pate, Richie Porte, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift, Rigoberto Uran and Xabier Zandio lined up to start the Vuelta a Espana. Froome was designated the team leader, while Swift was the squads sprinter. Sky finished fifth in the time trial on the first stage. Ben Swift finished in second place on stage 18 and third on the second stage. Chris Froome finished second on stage six. Richie Porte finished second on stage 20.
In 2013, Moreno won the World Tour race La Flèche Wallonne, after following an attack initiated by Philippe Gilbert () on the final climb, the Mur de Huy. He passed Gilbert and Carlos Betancur () to grab the victory. He later continued his good form into the Critérium du Dauphiné where he finished 3rd overall. At the Vuelta a Espana, he won stages 4 and 9 and finished 10th in the overall general classification.
On 30 September 2011, it was announced that Brajkovič would be returning to for the 2012 season. He won the Tour of Slovenia in 2012. Brajkovic later rode the 2012 Tour de France where he ended up finishing 9th overall. After having a relatively quiet 2013 season, Brajkovic wore the Maillot Rojo after his team won the stage 1 team time trial in the Vuelta A Espana. He wore it for 1 day and then lost it to teammate Vincenzo Nibali. The 2014 season was statistically the worst year of Brajkovic's career. He failed to record a stage win for the first time in his career, which was attributed to many injuries and illnesses.
Sánchez joined Dutch team for the 2011 season. Once again he won the national time trial championships in 2011. He also won Stage 9 of the Tour de France, but was unable to repeat his high overall placing of 2010, managing only 57th overall. Likewise, he rode the Vuelta a Espana and finished 53rd overall.
Emilio Rodríguez Barros (28 November 1923, Ponteareas, Spain – 21 February 1984, Ponteareas, Spain) was a Spanish professional road bicycle racer from Ponteareas who won the King of the Mountains classification at Vuelta a España three times and captured the overall title at the 1950 Vuelta a España. Rodríguez's two brothers were also professional cyclists - his older brother Delio won the 1945 Vuelta a España and in total won 39 stages at the Vuelta a España. Emilio's other brother Manolo finished second in the general classification of the edition that Emilio won.
The Vuelta a España was established in 1935 by the newspaper "Informaciones" following on from the success of the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia which had also been established by newspapers. The first race was won by Gustaaf Deloor, who won again the following year. The Vuelta was suspended for four years from 1937 to 1940 due to the Spanish Civil War. The first race after the civil war in 1941 was won by Julián Berrendero, who also won the following year. The Vuelta was suspended between 1943 and 1944 due to the Second World War. Delio Rodríguez won the first Vuelta after the war, Spanish riders won two more Vueltas in 1946 and 1948. The Vuelta was not held in 1949. Emilio Rodríguez was the victor in 1950, before the Vuelta was suspended from 1951 to 1954 as Spain's isolation during the Franco regime led to dwindling international interest in the race.
During his remarkable career Zoetemelk spent 22 days in the Yellow Jersey and won 10 individual stages in the Tour De France, was the overall winner of the Vuelta a Espana in 1979, the King of the Mountains in 1971, and won the World Championship in 1985.