Enric Mas extended his lead in the Vuelta a España by an additional 27 seconds on Thursday, as 20-year-old Slovenian Jakob Omrzel took a brilliant victory from the breakaway atop Calar Alto.

First-year pro Omrzel was one of 30 riders in the day’s breakaway, and he was also the most dangerous, sitting 10th on GC, eight minutes adrift of leader Mas.

With 11.7km to go, on gradients that averaged 10 percent, the Bahrain-Victorious rider attacked from what remained of the escape group. He reached the top of the 2,151m climb almost two minutes ahead of his fellow breakaway rider Urko Berrade.

Mas launched his own stinging move around the same place that Omrzel attacked. He immediately opened up a gap of 20 seconds to Primož Roglič and Felix Gall, second and third on GC.

Aided by his Movistar teammate Raul Garcia Pierna on the ensuing false flat that preceded one final steep ramp, Mas crossed the line 27 seconds ahead of Roglič and Gall.

The Spaniard now leads the race by 1:45 from Roglič.

Jacob Whitehead and Chris Marshall-Bell analyze the key storylines from today’s stage.

Jakob Omrzel announces himself on the WorldTour stage

The parallels are unavoidable, but it is a disservice to Jakob Omrzel to place that pressure on him after the greatest day of his professional career.

Nevertheless, the sight of the 20-year-old Slovenian riding clear up the famed Calo Alto, seven years on from a similarly callow Pogačar seizing his first Grand Tour stage victory, provide a resounding echo.

His stage victory from the break was dominant and absolute; simply far stronger than far more experienced riders on the race’s hardest climb so far. He is now the second youngest stage winner in Vuelta history — 179 days younger than Pogačar. The time gap to second-placed Urko Berrade — one minute and 56 seconds — was massive.

Born an hour south of his compatriot in Novo Mesto, close to the Croatian border, this is his first Grand Tour — a long-awaited debut given his junior record.

Omrzel looks destined to be Bahrain-Victorious’ GC leader for the future and the now — with a palmares that already includes the 2025 Giro d’Italia Next Gen, 2024 Paris-Roubaix Juniors, and a highly impressive sixth place overall at this year’s senior Tour of the Alps, well clear of riders such as Tom Pidcock, Derek Gee-West, and Ben O’Connor.

Omrzel reacts with disbelief as he crosses the line on Thursday’s stage (JOSE JORDAN / AFP via Getty Images)

His Vuelta debut has already been active — finishing fourth on stage seven from the breakaway and predicting more was to come. The young starlet was right. He is now up to sixth overall, just 30 seconds off current white jersey Oscar Onley.

“I’m not surprised because I know how much work I’ve put in,” Omrzel said immediately after the stage. “I knew this day would come sooner or later, but not 100 percent in my first Grand Tour. I felt super good, I still feel ok, I’m not tired, so I’m just enjoying it at the moment.”

Pogačar may be back home in Monaco and recuperating — but Slovenians are still winning mountain stages.

Jacob Whitehead

‘Wow, he’s on a really high level’ – how the GC battle was shaken up

Two first category climbs in the final 45km was always likely to produce a shake-up in the general classification, and the punishing ascents of Almeria, baking in the late summer sun, did not disappoint.

Richard Carapaz, who was fifth on GC overnight with a deficit of 3:36, tried a typically audacious move 7km from the summit of the penultimate climb of Alto de Velefique. The Ecuadorian had a 20 second lead for most of the remainder of the ascent, but he was caught by the GC group as they began the descent.

Calar Alto’s hardest section is its first 5km, with unrelenting steep gradients. It’s here where both Omrzel and Mas made their moves, and also where Oscar Onley and Sepp Kuss lost contact with the front group.

Onley ceded 2:09 to Mas and is now fifth, while Kuss drops to eighth, as a result of Omrzel jumping four places to sixth.

At the time of the race-defining attacks, Decathlon CMA CGM had three men riding in support for Gall, vastly outnumbering any other team, but Gall was unable to make the numerical advantage count.

Gall and Roglič, with the help of teammates who dropped back from the remnants of the breakaway, limited their losses to 27 seconds to Mas.

“He went at the perfect moment – wow, he’s on a really high level,” Gall said of Mas.

💥 CICLISMO IS BACK ❤️#LaVuelta26 pic.twitter.com/Xf8TXJUqy1

— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) September 3, 2026

Though there are still nine stages left, after the Calar Alto stage it appears increasingly certain that the win will be fought over between Mas, Roglič and Gall, with the latter having a cushion of 1:47 to Carapaz in fourth.

“The objective was to drop one of the guys who are currently in contention for the podium,” Gall added. “That’s all we wanted to do today so from our side it was a good day.”

Chris Marshall-Bell

Is Wout van Aert chasing the mountains classification?

Not content with his commanding lead in the green jersey, it has become apparent in the last two stages that Wout van Aert is also targeting the King of the Mountains competition.

The Belgian was the first to the top of stage 12’s first three categorised climbs, just as he was on the previous day’s one and only climb. His climbing exploits meant that he was only eight points adrift of mountains classification leader Santiago Buitrago ahead of the final two climbs today.

But Buitrago then claimed maximum points on the Alto de Velefique, increasing his lead over Van Aert to 22 points.

🤝 The breakaway is working well together and their advantage has grown to 6′ over the peloton, controlled by Movistar. Meanwhile, the battle between van Aert and Buitrago goes into the next round 🤜🤛

⚡️La fuga se entiende, colabora y ya son 6′ de ventaja con el pelotón,… pic.twitter.com/gV4SpAdPK0

— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) September 3, 2026

Given mountain whippet Buitrago’s climbing quality, and the succession of big climbs still to come in the race, it will be difficult for Van Aert — who won the very flat and cobbled Paris-Roubaix in April, let’s not forget — to deny the Colombian.

But as always with Van Aert: you just never know.

The do-it-all Visma-Lease a Bike rider has long since played a number of roles: Classics man, leadout supreme, substitute sprinter, breakaway hunter and mountain domestique. There are very, very few like him. Fatigue, it seems, is an alien concept to Van Aert.

Chris Marshall-Bell

Stage 12 top 10
Jakob Omrzel | Bahrain Victorious (4:29:53)
Urko Berrade | Equipo Kern Pharma (+1m 56s)
Santiago Buitrago | Bahrain Victorious (+2m 13s)
Alexey Lutsenko | NSN Cycling (+2m 49s)
Mauri Vansevenant | Soudal Quick-Step (+2m 53s)
Enric Mas | Movistar (+2m 56s)
Felix Gall | Decathlon CMA CGM (+3m 23s)
Primoz Roglic | Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe (+3m 23s)
Richard Carapaz | EF Education-Easypost (+3m 23s)
Gregor Mühlberger | Decathlon CMA CGM (+3m 50s)
General classification after stage 12
Enric Mas | Movistar (40:31:51)
Primož Roglič | Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe (+1m 45s)
Felix Gall | Decathlon CMA CGM (+2m 6s)
Richard Carapaz | EF Education-Easypost (+3m 53s)
Oscar Onley | Netcompany INEOS (+4m 29s)
Jakob Omrzel | Bahrain Victorious (+4m 59s)
Mattias Skjelmose | Lidl Trek (+7m 42s)
Sepp Kuss | Visma-Lease a Bike (+7m 58s)
Gregor Mühlberger | Decathlon CMA CGM (+8m 27s)
Harold Tejada | XDS Astana (+8m 33s)

Mas celebrates another accomplished day in the red jersey (JOSE JORDAN / AFP via Getty Images)