Pablo Castrillo, a rider from the wildcard Kern Pharma team, won stage 12 of the Vuelta a España with a plucky solo attack on the final cat-one climb up to Montaña de Manzaneda.
He was not far off being caught by Brit Max Poole (dsm-firmenich PostNL) in the final 200 metres, but the 23-year-old Spaniard held on to win by eight seconds at the end of the 138km stage.
Castrillo's win was heavily laced with emotion because of the death earlier today of Kern Pharma's former team president, Manolo Azcona, following an illness.
For Poole, it was another frustratingly close call with victory, after finishing third yesterday at Cortizo Padron.
Race leader Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R) was untroubled by his fellow GC rivals on the final climb, retaining the red jersey with a 3:16 lead over Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
"It's unbelievable, Castrillo said of his victory. "It's for the team, and it's for the staff."
"I was very nervous for the final," he added, "but I decided to attack in the flat and take victory."
He had planned to attack nearer to the finish, but said that ultimately, the right moment came at 10km to go.
How it happened
Galicia in the north of the country played host once again to proceedings, with the riders treated to a lie-in and a late start from the spa city of Ourense Termal, with 138km ahead of them on another day that wasn't mountainous exactly, but featured plenty of climbing all the same.
It was a tale of one long, lumpy parcours leading to the bottom of a cat-one climb to a summit finish, at the 1,488m-high Estación de Montaña de Manzaneda.
Once again triple stage winner Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) was forging the pace, opening up a small gap in the opening kilometres. It was short lived though, with the race still together with 20km ridden.
It was around that point that the break of the day went clear, with nine riders including Max Poole (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Marc Soler (UAE-Team Emirates) opening a gap.
Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) made it 10, and soon afterwards the peloton left them off the leash, with the gap swelling to around 10 minutes and staying there all the way to the foot of the climb to Manzaneda.
The breakaway riders began attacking each other not long after starting the 16km climb, with Marc Soler attempting to go clear before Castrillo slipped off the front with 10km to go, and holding the chasers off all the way to the finish.
Results
Vuelta a España 2024 stage 12: Ourense Termal > Estación de Montaña de Manzaneda (137.5km)
1. Pablo Castrillo (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma, in 3:36:12
2. Max Poole (GBR) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +8s
3. Marc Soler (Spa) UAE-Team Emirates, +16s
4. Mauro Schmid (Swi) Jayco-Alula, +23s
5. Jhonatan Narvaez (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers, +34s
6. Mauri Vansevenant (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +40s
7. Harold Tejada (Col) Astana Qazaqstan, +49
8. Carlos Verona (Spa) Lidl-Trek, +1:03
9. Louis Meintjes (RSA) Intermarché-Wanty, +1:14
10. Oscar Rodríguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers, +1:52
General Classification after Stage 12
1. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, in 47:37:45
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +3:16
3. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, +3:58
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +4:10
5. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, +4:40
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +5:23
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +5:29
8. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates, +5:30
9. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, at same time
10. George Bennett (NZl) Israel-Premier Tech, +5:46
