Oscar Onley battled hard to limit his losses on stage 12 of the Vuelta a Espana following a crash earlier in the stage.
The Netcompany INEOS rider set his own tempo up the final climb of Calar Alto after becoming distanced from his immediate GC contenders.
Despite that the Scot was able to dig deep and finish 12th on the stage as a breakaway contested the top positions.
Onley now sits fifth overall, 4:29 back on continued leader Enric Mas (Movistar), whilst retaining his white Young Rider’s jersey.
Jack Haig and Axel Laurance formed part of a large 30-man break which went on to contest the stage win. In the end it was Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) who pulled off an impressive solo victory, elevating himself to sixth overall.
Earlier, with 131km to go, Onley was among a handful of riders who slid out on a roundabout following the opening climb.