Heading off the back of the second rest day, Oscar Onley looked to be in a perilous general classification position.
An innocuous crash on a roundabout on Stage 12 clearly claimed more of a toll on the Netcompany-Ineos leader than it first appeared. Losing over a minute to his closest rivals on the ascent to Calar Alto was less than ideal, but the added setback was the emergence of Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain-Victorious) as a rival in the Young Rider classification.
The young Slovenian won the stage from the breakaway and vaulted himself to within 30 seconds of the Scot. The two traded blows on Stage 14’s summit to Sierra de la Pandera but no time would exchange hands heading into the final week – including a 32km time trial and two high mountain stages.
It would be fair to say that Stage 18’s time trial from El Puerto de Santa María to Jerez de la Frontera could be one of the most important grand tour stages in recent years, certainly with tartan-tinted lenses on that is.
Callum Thornley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) set off as one of the early starters. The Peebles rider in his first grand tour had impressed as a domestique for Primoz Roglic and in the opening time trial in Monaco, however it would be a lengthy stint in the hot seat this time for Thornley – taking the provisional lead average 54.37km/h across the 32.1km course. Eventually, Stefan Kung would narrowly surpass Thornley by two seconds, but no other rider would come close to the time of Red Bull’s latest young talent, meaning it would be second on the stage for Callum.
Time trialling is not a favoured discipline of Onley, however it was clear that significant effort has been placed into improving both positioning and form this year. Through the first time checks, the Scot had taken well over 14 seconds out of Omrzel, eventually rising to 27 across the line in Jerez. Meanwhile, Felix Gall and Richard Carapaz would both also lose significant seconds to Onley as well, as the former Spokes RT rider would take 17th on the stage.
The final two mountain stages in Andalusia would decide the final standing of La Vuelta. Despite a major effort by both Red Bull-Bora and EF-Education First, nothing really could separate the main general classification riders on Stage 19 to Peñas Blancas, except Onley extending his white jersey lead over Omrzel by an additional six seconds. Leaving Onley in fifth place with 63 seconds to defend into the queen stage of the race.
Saturday’s Stage 20 was one of the most hectic days of grand tour racing in the modern era. Uno-X sent all eight of their riders in the breakaway, while Visma | Lease a Bike set up a long range raid for Sepp Kuss. In fact, so much was going on that the host broadcaster ran out of TV Motorbikes to cover the battles on the road, which meant the battle for White remained completely unseen all day.
Onley and Omrzel stuck together throughout the day, a few minutes behind the Mas, Roglic et al. group, while Kuss was further forward gaining time and position. A hark back to the days of when bad weather would stop the broadcast helicopter from flying, as the only updates on the battle, where from less than accurate time checks from race organisation, as their GPS tracking software also failed.
Ten minutes after Mikel Landa crossed Collado del Alguacil to claim his famous stage win, Onley would emerge seven seconds in front of his Slovenian counterpart to ensure that the white jersey would remain on his shoulders for the final semi-neutralised stage around Granada. Kuss’s long range attack would work ahead however, rising the Eagle of Durango from 11th to fifth, and knocking Onley down to sixth in the general classification but a small price to pay to confirm his first, of what we hope will be many, trips on to a grand tour podium.
Thornley would make the finish in Granada too, having spent most of Stage 20 in the breakaway to help Primoz Roglic, the first of what we know will be many Grand Tour appearances for 23-year-old. He may not have won a stage but he did win the Keepy-Up Challenge, so if this whole professional cycling thing doesn’t work out, we’re sure one of the various Red Bull football sides will be in touch.
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