Jakob Omrzel wins Stage 12 of the 2026 Vuelta a Espana in a strong solo finish atop Calar Alto. At 20 years, 5 months and 13 days, Jakob Omrzel becomes the youngest Slovenian Grand Tour stage winner, beating Tadej Pogacar’s benchmark (20 years, 11 months and 10 days when he won stage 9 of La Vuelta 19), and the youngest Grand Tour stage winner since Celestino Prieto in La Vuelta 1981 (20 years, 2 months and 27 days to win stage 4).
Stage 12 of the 2026 Vuelta a Espana was a return to the mountains. From Almeria, the peloton faced a gruelling 4,568 metres of elevation gain between Vera and the summit finish at Calar Alto, past the Alto de Velefique.
Race leader Enric Mas (Movistar) faces another key challenge in his bid to defend La Roja just a few days after his dominant display at Alto de Aitana. He started the day with a gap of 1’18” to Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and 1’39” to Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM). Oscar Onley (Netcompany Ineos) is fourth, trailing by 2’20”.
As the stage rolled out, Ethan Hayter, yesterday’s combativity winner, was on the attack again. It does not last, but attacks were going left and right.
Alexey Lutsenko and Andreas Leknessund were able to make a successful move, and Wout van Aert, along with Ivo Oliveira (UAE Emirates XRG) and Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ United) were able to jump on.
The attackers were caught at km 29, but Lutsenko immediately attacked again. He was joined by Axel Laurance (Netcompany Ineos) and Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Premier Tech). They had a small gap, just 12″ at km 35.
A strong group of about 20 riders makes the bridge up to the lead trio. Van Aert and Buitrago are again in the mix. The peloton settled in and the gap opened, hitting 2’45” by km 47.
José Manuel Diaz Gallego (Burgos-Burpellet BH) and Chris Hamilton (Picnic PostNL) bridged up to make it a 30-man group at the front. While there were some GC contenders in the bunch, no one was a danger to Mas’ lead. While no one can likely affect Mas, nine riders in the lead group are former Vuelta stage winners.
With 100km to go, the thirty leaders were 5’10” ahead of the peloton. The attackers tackled 18.5 km of ascent on irregular slopes to reach the Category 2 Collado Garcia. Wout van Aert took his third top KOM points for the day while the peloton crested the ascent with the biggest gap so far today: 6’35”.
As the attackers plow through the valley leading to Velefique, they entered the final 50km with a seven minute advantage.
On the starting ramps to Velefique, the gap continued to grow. It now sat at 7’28”.
With 40km to go, it was Almeida, Vermaerke, Buitrago, Bisiaux, Lutsenko, Omrzel, Tuckwell, Berrade, Pickering, Haig, Garcia Pierna, Castrillo at the front. Back in the peloton, a reduced GC group of 25 started to turn up the pace, reducing the attacker’s advantage to 6’40”.
As the breakaway group enters the final 20km, they still have a5’10” gap, but they had the 2153m Calar Alto ahead of them. As they start the climb, it’s Tuckwell, Garcia Pierna, Bisiaux, Haig, Buitrago, Omrzel, Lutsenko, Vansevenant and Berrade leading. Buitrago sets the pace and it proved to be too much for Garcia Pierna and Vansevenant.
Decathlon CMA CGM is at the front of the peloton. The GC group is splintering. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) is dropped and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) struggles to hang on. Felix Gall attacked the peloton, but he was not alone. In addition to his three teammates – Scotson, Muhlberger, Riccitello – he was also joined by four rivals: Mas, Roglic, Onley and Carapaz.
With 12km remaining, Omrzel goes solo.
Mas attacked from the GC group with Gall and Roglic chasing.
With 9km to go, Omrzel still leads the Mas group by 3’45”.
Ormzel still led with just 3km of climbing remaining. Mas, meanwhile, opened a gap over Roglic and Gall.
And Omrzel wins it! Mas crossed the line 2’56” later.
2026 Vuelta a Espana: Stage 12 Brief Results
- Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious)
- Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma), +1’56”
- Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), +2’13”
- Alexey Lutsenko (NSN), +2’49”
- Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step), +2’53”
- Enric Mas (Movistar), +2’56”
- Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), +3’23”
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), s.t.
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), s.t.
2026 Vuelta a Espana: General Classification After Stage 12
- Enric Mas (Movistar) @ 40h 31’51”
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +1’45”
- Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), +2’06”
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), +3’53”
- Oscar Onley (Netcompany Ineos), +4’29”
- Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious), +4’59”
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