The name of Jakob Omrzel, the youngest rider at the Vuelta, has entered the history of the race and at Calar Alto he claimed his first professional victory. At just twenty years old, Jakob Omrzel chose an enormous stage to secure the first professional victory of his young career. The Slovenian from Bahrain Victorious delivered a memorable performance in the twelfth stage of the Vuelta a España, winning solo at the Calar Alto finish line and giving his team one of the most beautiful victories of this edition.
Omrzel is the youngest rider at the start of the Vuelta and, in his first Grand Tour, he has already found success. A victory built with courage, legs, and a condition that seems to grow day after day. But above all, a victory that definitively projects him among the young talents to follow with greater attention.

His day was perfect. In the 166.6-kilometer stage, Omrzel entered the breakaway alongside teammates Santiago Buitrago and Pello Bilbao. Bilbao managed the group, Buitrago collected valuable points to consolidate his position in the climbers' classification, and when it came time to fight for victory, Bahrain Victorious gave space to its very young talent.

With 13 kilometers to go, Omrzel attacked from the now-reduced lead group. Once he opened the gap, the Slovenian never looked back: he tackled the final kilometers alone and crossed the finish line with 1'56" advantage over Urko Berrade, while Santiago Buitrago completed the podium in third place. An extraordinary one-two for Bahrain Victorious.

"I'm not surprised, because I know how much work I've put in and I knew this day would come sooner or later, but I definitely didn't expect it 100% at my first Grand Tour. So yes, I still can't believe what I did, but I feel amazing. I still feel good, I'm not far back, I'm not tired, so I don't know, I'm just enjoying the moment".

Words that perfectly capture the state of mind of a young man who suddenly found himself on the biggest stage of his young career. And the feeling is that Omrzel hasn't yet fully realized what he managed to accomplish.

For Bahrain Victorious it was a practically perfect day. Beyond Omrzel's victory, Buitrago maintained the best climber's jersey, increasing his advantage in the classification.

The secret, according to Omrzel, was precisely teamwork. "Actually, we at Team Bahrain are really good as riders, we understand each other perfectly. And right now, we're working really well together. The whole team is simply perfect. We said we're playing PlayStation, and that's what we're doing right now. What we want, we do. We went into the breakaway, and it was simply fantastic, and I'm really proud of it".

A curious metaphor to describe a day in which everything seemed to work perfectly. Three men in the breakaway, Buitrago busy collecting points and Omrzel free to fight for victory. The result was the best possible.

But there's also a statistical fact destined to remain in the history of Slovenian cycling. Omrzel became the youngest Slovenian to win a stage in a Grand Tour, surpassing even Tadej Pogacar's benchmark at the same age.

"I mean, yes, it's just a statistic, it doesn't mean anything else, but yes, it's so nice to think about statistics".
And perhaps this simplicity is one of the most surprising aspects of the young Slovenian. At twenty years old, having just claimed a Vuelta stage, Omrzel already seems to have the maturity to understand that this could be just the beginning.