Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma) was the surprise winner of the 12th stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Thursday.

Castrillo was able to get into a nine-man breakaway and then escape from the other riders on the climb to the Estacio de Montana de Manzaneda, at the end of a short but intense 137-kilometer stage held in the beautiful but testing scenery of Galicia's Ribeira Sagra region.

It was the first win for a Spanish rider in this year's La Vuelta and ever win for his second-tier Continental level team in a major tour.

"I really suffered, but it's the best day of my life," said Castrillo at the end of the stage.

The breakaway worked well for most of the stage, opening a lead of almost 10 minutes over the main peloton, and it wasn't until the start of the 15-kilometer climb that they began to attack each other, looking for the stage win.

Marc Soler (UAE-Team Emirates) was the first to try to test his companions, but it was Castrillo, using the big ring on his gears, who was able to open a lead over Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), with the chasers 25 seconds behind as they reached the steeper slopes at the end of the stage.

Soler was caught leaving Castrillo with a lead of 27 seconds in the last two kilometers and it helped as the group behind him failed to work together to chase him down.

The group containing race leader Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R-La Mondiale), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) and Enric Mas (Movistar) all crossed the line together six and a half minutes after the winner, as they saved their strength for Friday.

Friday sees a difficult 175-kilometer mountain stage from Lugo, with a finish on the top of the first category Puerto de Ancares, which comes after one third and two second category climbs.