Irishman Eddie Dunbar achieved a remarkable victory on stage 19 of the Vuelta a España, while Spaniard Enric Mas retained his overall lead with just one mountain stage remaining before the finale on Sunday.

The stage covered a challenging 210km route from Vélez-Málaga to Peñas Blancas. With only 300 metres to go, Dunbar caught and surpassed Colombian Santiago Buitrago, who had surged ahead in the final kilometers. Buitrago, riding for Bahrain Victorious, had distanced his breakaway companions, including Dunbar, inside the last 2km. However, Dunbar launched a powerful counterattack in the final kilometre, finishing 14 seconds ahead of Buitrago, who currently leads the mountains classification. Thomas Gloag, Dunbar's British teammate, finished in third place, 23 seconds back.

“It’s incredible, I really didn’t expect this today,” Dunbar expressed. “I even said in the team radio after about 50 or 60km that today wasn’t my day. I wasn’t feeling good. Then I ended up in the break and my legs came around a bit.”

Meanwhile, Enric Mas from Movistar maintained a comfortable 1 minute 37 seconds lead over four-time champion Primoz Roglic as the overall contenders crossed the line together. Despite attempts from Roglic’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team and EF Education-Easypost, led by former Giro d’Italia winner Richard Carapaz, they could not apply any pressure on Mas, who is aiming for his first Vuelta title after finishing second three times.