On 18 April 2012, he won La Flèche Wallonne in Belgium with a superb climb on the Mur de Huy and finished second in the Tour of the Basque Country.
Rodríguez took his good form into the Giro d'Italia where he won two stages and finished second overall to Canadian Ryder Hesjedal.
He was always competitive with the general classification contenders in the high mountains, and held the maglia rosa coming into the final individual time trial, where he lost 47 seconds to Hesjedal, therefore losing the overall lead by 16 seconds.
However, he won the points classification jersey, with a slim lead of one point (139 to 138) over Mark Cavendish.

On the Vuelta a España, Rodríguez almost took the win on stage 3, but Alejandro Valverde popped up on his right to steal the victory in a photo finish, and snatched the red jersey.
On the next stage, a big crash occurred involving Valverde.
Rodríguez took the lead in the overall classification, arriving with the remnants of the bunch atop the climb of the Orduña.
He took the sixth stage, the majority of it was flat but the riders had to tackle with two Category 3 climbs near the conclusion, the line being situated atop the last one, the Fuerte del Rapitán in Jaca.
With 500 m (1,600 ft) remaining, Chris Froome launched an attack which only Rodríguez could follow, before passing the Team Sky rider and grabbing both the victory and the twelve-second time bonus.
The scenario repeated itself on stage 12, where Rodríguez escaped from the lead group with Alberto Contador on the final difficulty of the day, the very steep climb Mirador de Ézaro.
The pair broke away in a section that had a gradient approaching 20%, and Rodríguez soon powered away from Contador to take his second stage of the Vuelta with an eight-second margin over Contador.
On the mountainous stage 14, Rodríguez played the same trick on Contador again on the final climb, with Contador attacking with two kilometers to go and looking very likely to take the victory.
Rodríguez got back to him, his rival attacked again and Rodríguez surged ahead to take the win.
Disaster struck for him on stage 17, where Contador slipped into a breakaway and went on to win the stage solo, as Rodríguez could not respond and was relegated to third place overall.
Despite his attacks on the penultimate stage in the steep climb of Bola del Mondo, Rodríguez could not improve his third placing although he gained some time on Contador.

Rodríguez went to Italy to compete in the Giro di Lombardia, where he had the opportunity to take the first place in the 2012 UCI World Tour detained by Bradley Wiggins.
He did exactly that by winning the race under heavy rain and temperatures oscillating around 10 °C (50 °F).
He attacked on the final difficulty of the day, the Villa Vergano climb.
He arrived at the top of the difficulty alone and descended to Lecco, claiming the victory with a gap of 9 seconds.
On 18 April 2012, he won La Flèche Wallonne in Belgium with a superb climb on the Mur de Huy and finished second in the Tour of the Basque Country. Rodríguez took his good form into the Giro d'Italia where he won two stages and finished second overall to Canadian Ryder Hesjedal. He was always competitive with the general classification contenders in the high mountains, and held the maglia rosa coming into the final individual time trial, where he lost 47 seconds to Hesjedal, therefore losing the overall lead by 16 seconds. However, he won the points classification jersey, with a slim lead of one point (139 to 138) over Mark Cavendish.
On the Vuelta a España, Rodríguez almost took the win on stage 3, but Alejandro Valverde popped up on his right to steal the victory in a photo finish, and snatched the red jersey. On the next stage, a big crash occurred involving Valverde. Rodríguez took the lead in the overall classification, arriving with the remnants of the bunch atop the climb of the Orduña. He took the sixth stage, the majority of it was flat but the riders had to tackle with two Category 3 climbs near the conclusion, the line being situated atop the last one, the Fuerte del Rapitán in Jaca. With 500 m (1,600 ft) remaining, Chris Froome launched an attack which only Rodríguez could follow, before passing the Team Sky rider and grabbing both the victory and the twelve-second time bonus. The scenario repeated itself on stage 12, where Rodríguez escaped from the lead group with Alberto Contador on the final difficulty of the day, the very steep climb Mirador de Ézaro. The pair broke away in a section that had a gradient approaching 20%, and Rodríguez soon powered away from Contador to take his second stage of the Vuelta with an eight-second margin over Contador. On the mountainous stage 14, Rodríguez played the same trick on Contador again on the final climb, with Contador attacking with two kilometers to go and looking very likely to take the victory. Rodríguez got back to him, his rival attacked again and Rodríguez surged ahead to take the win. Disaster struck for him on stage 17, where Contador slipped into a breakaway and went on to win the stage solo, as Rodríguez could not respond and was relegated to third place overall. Despite his attacks on the penultimate stage in the steep climb of Bola del Mondo, Rodríguez could not improve his third placing although he gained some time on Contador.
Rodríguez went to Italy to compete in the Giro di Lombardia, where he had the opportunity to take the first place in the 2012 UCI World Tour detained by Bradley Wiggins. He did exactly that by winning the race under heavy rain and temperatures oscillating around 10 °C (50 °F). He attacked on the final difficulty of the day, the Villa Vergano climb. He arrived at the top of the difficulty alone and descended to Lecco, claiming the victory with a gap of 9 seconds.
Joaquim Rodríguez