Stage 12

The road

At the start

Seventeen kilometres of Calar Alto

Three days in the flatlands have left the classification where the Aitana put it: Mas by 1:18 from Roglič, 1:39 from Gall, Onley in white at 2:20. Van Aert has the points jersey and no stage win yet, and is chasing Buitrago for the mountains one too. Today the road goes back up — 167 kilometres, four and a half thousand metres of climbing, the Alto de Velefique at thirty-one to go and then Calar Alto to the line.

How it was won

1. 1151 km to go

   Van Aert opens the mountains war

   Steinhauser goes first and is caught, Almeida and Van Aert go next and are caught, and then Van Aert slips away on the Alto del Cabecico purely to take three mountain points and close to within one of Buitrago. Four and a half thousand metres of climbing lie ahead of them, and the green jersey is racing for the polka dots.

2. 2109 km to go

   Thirty go, at last

   It takes forty kilometres of fighting before the day's move sticks, and when it does it is thirty riders strong: Almeida, Van Aert and Buitrago again, with Bilbao, Dunbar, Berrade, Leknessund, Johannessen, Brenner, and Mas's own men García Pierna and Castrillo. Jakob Omrzel is in it too, twenty years old and tenth overall at eight minutes. Van Aert leads over the Alto de Cóbdar for six points to Buitrago's four, and the gap goes past four minutes.

3. 343 km to go

   Seven and a half minutes, and Mas alone

   The valley road hands the break seven and a half minutes and makes Omrzel the virtual second man in the race. Van Aert takes twenty points at the sprint in Velefique; Almeida then buries himself on the rising road out of it and splits the break to pieces. Back down the mountain the red jersey has one teammate left in Iván Romeo, because the other two are up the road.

4. 431 km to go

   Carapaz digs on Velefique

   Thirteen kilometres at seven per cent, and with thirty-seven to go Carapaz attacks a GC group already down to fifteen and takes half a minute out of it. Romeo drags him back single-handed. Up front Omrzel tries the same thing with Bisiaux and is closed down a kilometre from the summit, where Buitrago leads Lutsenko over for ten points and the outright mountains lead. Eight are left at the head of the race.

5. 515 km to go

   Decathlon light up Calar Alto

   Seventeen kilometres of summit finish, and Decathlon take it by the throat with fifteen still to climb. Skjelmose goes out the back almost immediately and Sepp Kuss with him. Then Gall launches, and takes Mas and Roglič with him, and leaves behind Onley — who crashed early in the stage — and Carapaz.

6. 612 km to go

   Two men ride away, four minutes apart

   On the same stretch of mountain, separated by four minutes of road, the race produces two solo riders. Omrzel leaves Urko Berrade with 11.7 kilometres left — a Grand Tour debutant who has already been virtual second overall today and is now simply the strongest man on the climb. Below him Mas stops answering Gall and goes himself, takes half a minute in a few hundred metres, and picks up García Pierna, dropped back out of the break for exactly this.

7. 7At the line

   Omrzel wins; Mas takes another 27

   García Pierna's work ends five kilometres from the top and the half-minute simply never moves again, however many teammates Gall and Roglič drop back to help them. Omrzel hits the last kilometre three minutes clear and converts it into the biggest win of a very young career, Berrade second at 1:56 and Buitrago third. Mas comes in sixth at 2:56 with twenty-seven more seconds on his rivals, 1:45 clear overall and looking more like the strongest man here on every mountain they climb.

The result