There was no official winner of stage 11 of the Vuelta a España as officials announced late in the race that the GC times would be taken with three kilometres to go due to “incidents” involving protests at the finish line in Bilbao.
Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) made a searing attack over the final ascent, Alto de Pike, with 8.5km remaining, taking the bonus seconds on offer and mountain points, but he was soon joined by the overall race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) as the pair tried to gain as much time as possible before the neutralisation.
“Due to some incidents at the finish line, we have decided to take the time at 3 kilometres before the line,’ organisers announced with roughly 15km to go.
“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.”
Vingegaard continues to lead the overall classification as the race heads into stage 12 from Laredo to Los Corrales de Buelna on Thursday.
How it unfolded
The Vuelta a España’s stage 11 was expected to be a firecracker of a race as the peloton set on a challenging 157.4km that included seven categorised ascents in and around Bilbao.
Ahead of the race, however, the riders met with organisers and officials from the UCI over concerns of safety amid multiple pro-Palestine protests that have happened during the race so far, including at the stage 5 team time trial in Figueres and a crash caused by demonstrators running onto the course on stage 10 that finished at El Ferial Larra Belagua.
Protests have also included pro-Basque independence demonstrations.
Although the decision was to start the stage, there was an unspoken agreement that if protests turned dangerous, riders could adjust their plans accordingly, with safety as their highest priority.
The peloton was then…
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