Oscar Onley (Netcompany-Ineos) suffered a big blow to his podium hopes at the Vuelta a España, crashing early on stage 12 before struggling on the summit finish at Calar Alto.

The British rider started the day fourth overall, 41 seconds off the podium, but has now slipped to fifth place at 4:29 behind leader Enric Mas (Movistar).

Onley was dropped when Felix Gall kicked off the hostilities on the hardest part of the Calar Alto climb, which measured 17.5km at 5.6%, but with early steep slopes ahead of some more gentle sections near the top.

Onley had been part of a GC group that was reduced to eight by Gall’s Decathlon CMA CGM teammates, but couldn’t follow when the race really ignited.

Initially, he chased with Richard Carapaz, but the EF Education-EasyPost rider managed to work his way back across to a group containing Gall and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), second and third on GC, who were chasing a long-range attack from the race leader Enric Mas (Movistar).

Onley, however, only lost more ground as the climb went on. He crossed the lined 2:09 down on Mas, and 1:42 down on the trio of Gall, Roglič, and Carapaz.

He’s now 2:23 adrift of the podium, where Gall sits in third, and didn’t have too much of an explanation for his losses.

“I think physically, in my legs and stuff, I felt OK, I just couldn’t really go that deep today. I just had to kind of ride my own pace,” he told Eurosport after the stage, before praising work from his teammate.

“When I caught up with Jack [Haig] he did a really good job to save some time and help me really recover on that flat section, so he did really good.”

Onley remains in the white jersey as the best young rider, but he now has a lead of only 30 seconds, with Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) making strides after his stage victory from the breakaway.

It remains to be seen how badly Onley was affected by his early crash, but he was left heavily dusted up by the incident, which occurred with some 130km left to race.

Onley was on the side of the peloton that was taking the left-hand side around a large roundabout, and he slid out, sliding along the tarmac on his right-hand side and onto the grass at the side of the road.

The crash was fairly random, and Onley himself didn’t really know what happened.

“I have no idea. One minute you’re on the bike and the next you’re sliding along the ground. I guess the roads here are pretty slippy.”

He was visibly frustrated as he got back to his feet and got a spare bike, before teammates helped him close the gap to the peloton. He then visited the medical car to get some of his road rash looked at.

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Oscar Onley (Netcompany-Ineos) suffered a big blow to his podium hopes at the Vuelta a España, crashing early on stage 12 before struggling on the summit finish at Calar Alto.

The British rider started the day fourth overall, 41 seconds off the podium, but has now slipped to fifth place at 4:29 behind leader Enric Mas (Movistar).

Onley was dropped when Felix Gall kicked off the hostilities on the hardest part of the Calar Alto climb, which measured 17.5km at 5.6%, but with early steep slopes ahead of some more gentle sections near the top.

Onley had been part of a GC group that was reduced to eight by Gall’s Decathlon CMA CGM teammates, but couldn’t follow when the race really ignited.

Initially, he chased with Richard Carapaz, but the EF Education-EasyPost rider managed to work his way back across to a group containing Gall and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), second and third on GC, who were chasing a long-range attack from the race leader Enric Mas (Movistar).

Onley, however, only lost more ground as the climb went on. He crossed the lined 2:09 down on Mas, and 1:42 down on the trio of Gall, Roglič, and Carapaz.

He’s now 2:23 adrift of the podium, where Gall sits in third, and didn’t have too much of an explanation for his losses.

“I think physically, in my legs and stuff, I felt OK, I just couldn’t really go that deep today. I just had to kind of ride my own pace,” he told Eurosport after the stage, before praising work from his teammate.

“When I caught up with Jack [Haig] he did a really good job to save some time and help me really recover on that flat section, so he did really good.”

Onley remains in the white jersey as the best young rider, but he now has a lead of only 30 seconds, with Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) making strides after his stage victory from the breakaway.

It remains to be seen how badly Onley was affected by his early crash, but he was left heavily dusted up by the incident, which occurred with some 130km left to race.

Onley was on the side of the peloton that was taking the left-hand side around a large roundabout, and he slid out, sliding along the tarmac on his right-hand side and onto the grass at the side of the road.

The crash was fairly random, and Onley himself didn’t really know what happened.

“I have no idea. One minute you’re on the bike and the next you’re sliding along the ground. I guess the roads here are pretty slippy.”

He was visibly frustrated as he got back to his feet and got a spare bike, before teammates helped him close the gap to the peloton. He then visited the medical car to get some of his road rash looked at.

For unbeatable coverage across road, gravel and tech, subscribe to Cyclingnews. You’ll get comprehensive race coverage of La Vuelta a España, subscriber-exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.