Spain’s Juan Ayuso held off Javier Romo to win stage 12 of the Vuelta a Espana in a breakaway as Jonas Vingegaard retained the overall race lead.

Ayuso, 22, who also won stage seven and is leaving UAE Team Emirates-XRG at the end of the season, was joined by his compatriot as he tried to go solo on the final climb of the day, about 26km from the finish of the 144.9km route from Laredo to Los Corrales de Buelna.

Romo finished second and France’s Brieuc Rolland crossed in third, before Victor Campenaerts led home a 16-man group that formed from a larger contingent of over 40 escapees earlier in the day.

“I had already won a stage and he had to pull more if he wanted to win the stage,” Ayuso told TNT Sports.

“I was told from the car to play it like this. It is not something I really enjoy, not co-operating fully, but sometime you have to play it smart.

“I knew how to time my sprint and I timed it perfectly.”

Vingegaard was flanked by his Visma-Lease a Bike team-mates as he came home over six minutes later, along with other GC favourites including Joao Almeida and Britain’s Tom Pidcock.

The final 100 metres to the line was marked by a show of pro-Palestinian protest flags, but there was no repeat of stage 11 when racing was affected and curtailed three kilometres before the finish in Bilbao.

That had led to race technical director Kiko Garcia reportedly discussing the Israel-Premier Tech team, external in the context of the safety of the rest of the peloton.

Friday’s 13th stage is the second longest in this year’s Vuelta at 202.7km and it should see the general classification race ignite on the final climb, a brutal summit finish on the Angliru where gradients will ramp up above 20%.