Enric Mas piled on during an endless climb up Calar Alto to tighten his grip on the red jersey Thursday at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n
Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) survived out of a big breakaway to win his first grand tour stage.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old Slovenian won the \u201cBaby Giro\u201d last year and moved up to sixth overall at the Vuelta in his grand tour debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not surprised because I know how much work I put in,\u201d Omrzel said. \u201cI knew the big day would come sooner than later. I can believe in what I did. I am enjoying the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Omrzel became the youngest Slovenian stage winner in a grand tour, younger even than Tadej Poga\u010dar in the 2019 Vuelta. That\u2019s good company to be in.<\/p>\n
Omrzel is also the youngest grand tour stage winner since Celestino Prieto in the 1981 edition of La Vuelta, according to race statistics. <\/p>\n
The big story in the GC was Movistar and Mas, who took control of the brutally hot and climb-heavy stage. The team played perfect tactics to place riders into the break and then attack to gap their top GC rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am happy with the team today. I have to be proud of them,\u201d Mas said. \u201cThe extra seconds are important for the week to come. I was confident and I knew the climb, but in the end, it was too long, but I enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Race leader Mas crossed the line sixth at 2:56 and widened his GC gap to Felix Gall and Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, who both crossed the line 27 seconds behind Mas.<\/p>\n
Mas now leads time trial threat Rogli\u010d by 1:45, with Gall in third at 2:06.<\/p>\n
Sepp Kuss slipped back one place, falling to eighth at 7:58 back.<\/p>\n
How it happened<\/h2>\n
The 166.6km stage from Vera to Calar Alto was marked with brutal heat that pushed temperatures into the high 90Fs. Riders went through dozens of water bottles to try to stay cool and hydrated.<\/p>\n
Onley crashed early in the stage and he suffered on the seemingly endless climb to Calar Alto to lose two minutes to Mas. The Netcompany-Ineos star finished more than 5 minutes behind the stage winner but he retained the white jersey half a minute ahead of Omrzel.<\/p>\n
A big break pulled clear, with Omrzel the top climber in the group that also included UAE\u2019s Kevin Vermaerke.<\/p>\n
Mas attacked with 11km to go to gap Gall and Rogli\u010d. He and Movistar wanted to send a message and they did.<\/p>\n
With 5km to go, Omrzel led alone from the break, 3:44 ahead of race leader Mas. Rogli\u010d and Gall followed at 4:20, with Onley dangling at 4:45.<\/p>\n
Kuss couldn\u2019t keep pace when Decathlon CMA CGM and lost 3:49 to Mas in the fight for the podium.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next<\/h2>\n
The 2026 Vuelta continues Friday with the 192.8km 13th stage from Almu\u00f1\u00e9car\u00a0to Loja. The stage opens with a first-category climb, so this one is for the stage-hunters.<\/p>\n
Two more second-category climbs spice up the long profile across the edges of the Sierra Nevada.<\/p>\n
Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a stage 12 results<\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\nAndrew Hood<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUpdated September 3, 2026 10:21AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/vuelta-a-espana\/vuelta-a-espana-stage-12-results-standings\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2292750768.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated September 3, 2026 10:21AM Enric Mas piled on during an endless climb up Calar Alto to tighten his grip on the red jersey Thursday at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) survived out of a big breakaway to win his first grand tour stage. The 20-year-old Slovenian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2127100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2127100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2127100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2127100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2127100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/vuelta-a-espana\/vuelta-a-espana-stage-12-results-standings\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2292750768.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated September 3, 2026 10:21AM Enric Mas piled on during an endless climb up Calar Alto to tighten his grip on the red jersey Thursday at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) survived out of a big breakaway to win his first grand tour stage. The 20-year-old Slovenian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2127100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2127100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2127100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2127100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2127100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}