The final and most difficult mountain stage of the 2026 Vuelta a España was a step too far for Oscar Onley as the Netcompany-Ineos rider faded out of the top five in the general classification.
The Scot was dropped on the first ascent of the Puerto de El Purche on Saturday, losing contact with the small group of favourites with just over 90km still to race. A daring attack from Visma-Lease a Bike’s Sepp Kuss vaulted the American from 11th to 5th in the overall standings, bumping Onley into sixth place.
Onley did, however, secure the white jersey as best young rider, beating Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) by a few seconds after the final climb to Collado de Alguacil.
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Hopes were high for Onley’s Vuelta general classification chances after he went toe-to-toe with red jersey Enric Mas (Movistar) on stage 9. However, the 23-year-old has been hampered ever since crashing on a roundabout during stage 12.
After stage 20, Onley described a challenging day in which more than 50 riders formed the early breakaway. Following accelerations on the first of four major climbs, Onley just lost contact with the group containing Mas and the other favourites.
"It was hard. Obviously the way this race is going, everyone wants to go in the breakaway, and the GC group is smaller than the front of the race for most of the day,” Onley said.
“Everyone expected [Richard] Carapaz to go. Sepp [Kuss] went first, and Carapaz jumped across. I followed the others, but I just missed ten metres on top of Monachil, the first time, and then the gap just exploded out by the time I waited for the group behind. That was it, really.”
Onley paid tribute to his teammates who had supported him, with most of his colleagues making it into the early moves.
Once it was clear that Onley did not have the legs to go with the red jersey, the focus shifted to winning white. Should he hold onto the jersey, Onley will become just the second Scottish rider to win a distinctive Grand Tour jersey in history, after Robert Millar’s success in the 1980s.
“We focused on protecting the white jersey. We had a really strong team again today. We had most of the guys up the road, so we could connect with them at different points. They really pulled hard.”
“I thank them, not just for today, but for the whole race. They’ve been really incredible. The support they’ve given me deep into the stages has been something incredible."
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