Oscar Onley retained fifth overall after a high octane stage 13 of La Vuelta a España
Netcompany INEOS rallied around their leader to protect his GC position, when a large break containing seventh-placed Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) threatened to overtake him.
However, Jack Haig and Axel Laurance dropped back from the break to join the rest of the team to help set a strong pace and reduce the deficit to keep the status quo ahead of the key weekend of the race.
A typically aggressive start to the stage saw a fight for the break, which eventually saw a large group go clear, including Laurance with Haig just behind.
Unfortunately a crash for the French rider put paid to his breakaway hopes as the group split further over the hilly terrain.
Skjelmose’s group had a lead of close to four minutes over the bunch with 40km remaining, forcing action behind as Carlos Rodriguez, Embret Svestad-Bårdseng then Haig helping to close the gap as other teams joined too.
As Wout van Aert won the stage from the break, Onley finished in a reduced peloton to retain fifth overall ahead of a key GC test on Saturday when the stage finishes atop Sierra de la Pandera.
"Sierra de la Pandera should be quite a good climb for me... I think it will be a good test."
Oscar Onley
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Oscar Onley
“I have a lot of respect for Skjelmose he’s a class rider, so I don’t want to give him any time for free. I also knew it would be difficult for him to gain a lot of time today because of the amount of riders in the break and nobody would want to work with him. In the end we brought back the gap quite quickly.
“Sierra de la Pandera should be quite a good climb for me, I hope to have better legs than yesterday. I think it will be a good test.”