Stage Annulled Due to Protests, Vingegaard and Pidcock Gain Time

Thomas Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) dropped all the other GC riders on the final ascent of Vuelta a España stage 11 (Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

Stage 11 of the Vuelta a España fizzled to a halt on Thursday, with protestors at the finish line leading to the decision to cancel the stage.

Race organizers announced the move as the riders raced towards the finish in Bilbao.

“Due to some incidents at the finish line, we have decided to take the time at 3 kilometers before the line,” the race organization said. “We won’t have a stage winner. We will give the points for the mountain classification and the intermediate sprint, but not on the finish line.”

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) put in one of the biggest performance of his career, attacking hard on the wall-like final climb of the Alto de Pike and dropping Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and all the other GC contenders.

Vingegaard clawed his way back up to him but Pidcock put in another blistering acceleration and dropped Vingegaard again. The Dane joined back up to him again after the summit and they raced together towards the 3km to go point, where the times taken saw them gain 12 seconds on the next chasers.

Those were João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Felix Gall (Decathlon-Ag2r-La Mondiale).

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Matthew Riccitello (IPT) were at 30 seconds.

Images from the finish line saw masses of protestors holding Palestinian flags, and large number of police officers.

The presence of the Israel Premier Tech team has sparked off such protestors, with some riders arguing the team should be asked to leave the race.

Tensions are high following the ongoing war in Gaza, with tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including many children, killed by the IDF, and the population displaced and suffering famine.

A tough day but no winner:

Stage 11 of the Vuelta a España was a tough one, containing seven punchy categorized climbs. All bar the final climb was between 4km and 8.2km in length, with the final climb just 2.1km in length but averaging over nine percent. It would play an important role in the stage outcome but not for the victory.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was one of the day’s main animators, launching attack after attack early on. He finally snapped the elastic on the Alto de Sollube, 26km in, when he went clear with Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Orluis Aular (Movistar).

They built a gap of 1:15 but the bunch hewed it back to 30 seconds by the start of the Alto de Morga climb, 75km after the start. Soler leaped away alone and gained more than a minute, with Soudal QuickStep rider Louis Vervaeke setting off in solo pursuit and catching the UAE rider inside the last 60km. However they were mopped up very soon afterwards.

Local hero Mikel Landa (Soudal QuickStep) attacked on the first of two ascents of the Alto del Vivero with 56km to go. He was joined by Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) after the summit, with 52km to go. They took the first two spots in the intermediate sprint, with points leader Pedersen taking third place from the peloton.

Landa had fractured his back a crash in the Giro d’Italia and was visibly troubled by it, dropping back with 32.5km remaining. Buitrago continued alone but was recaptured with 25km to go after a surge in pace by Almeida.

Vingegaard’s UAE Team Emirates squad took over on the run in to the final climb, with Jorgenson leading a fragmenting GC group as they neared the summit.

Pidcock attacked hard there, dropping all the other riders. Vingegaard was the closest and got back up to him, but was distanced again just before the top. The two riders linked up and drove towards the 3km to go banner, where time gaps were taken and the riders were waved to a halt.