Finally this Vuelta grants us a stage without a set-piece finale: No hockey stick, this parcours; instead, its rollicking profile, looking like a row from Joy Division’s iconic Unknown Pleasures album cover design, served up attacking action, and promised late-stage drama.
Parts of Stage 11 were relatively peaceful…
Instead, though, we were left with unfulfilled suspense — though Q36.5’s Tom Pidcock’s disappointment is surely far sorer than ours, as he seemed on track to deliver a career-defining moment when the stage’s finish was nullified, well before he and co-stage leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease A Bike) could duke it out in a final sprint.
…and not so serious.
In feisty Catalan tradition, political protesters overcame the barriers leading into the finish, while others sought to impede the racers through much of the stage — but these were pro-Palestinian activists, not Basque separatists, evidently protesting Israel-Premier Tech’s participation in the race. Ultimately the Vuelta’s organizers decided to designate the stage finish three kilometers early, recording times there and naming no official stage winner.
Pidcock was left wondering what might have been, having packed a 1-2 punch of an attack on the final, punishing Alto de Pike, with its quad-grinding 9.2% gradient over 2.1 km. The double-move dropped every rider in the leading group — including, for a moment, Vingegaard himself. The Dane clawed back the Brit after the Pike’s summit, as the descent to the finish was no snaking Pidcock playground, but a power descent where Vingegaard could put his world-class stamina.
The demonstrators, flags waving, having barricaded the finish in downtown Bilbao, forced the organizers’ hand, just as the riders were nearing the final summit. Pidcock pressed on, though, aiming for the bonus seconds on offer to the first over the Pike, and for a podium spot, could he gain enough seconds on former Red Jersey wearer Torstein Træen.
Pidcock achieved both objectives, yet after he and Vingegaard arrived first at the ghost finish point, he fumed, “I felt like today was my day…Putting us in danger isn’t going to help your cause” — a sentiment common among his fellow riders.
Even prior to Pidcock’s pyrotechnics, the stage had delivered excitement: In characteristic UAE fashion, Marc Soler broke alone off the front, even taking KOM points from his teammate Jay Vine, only ultimately to be reeled in. Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) also tried his luck, but sat (all the way) up, feeling either cramps or legacy pain from the crash that took him out of the Tour de France. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was extremely active until the last couple of climbs, pressing his Green Jersey advantage and racking up intermediate sprint points. And Joao Almeida (UAE-Team Emirates) continued his aggression, animating the final climbs but never shaking Vingegaard or his other GC rivals.
Pedersen was persistent (nearly) all day.
Almeida continues to push Vingegaard for the top podium spot.
Instead, it was Pidcock whose aggression paid off — nearly. Thanks to the neutralized finish, he was unable to realize the promise shown in his attacks — and if ever in this Vuelta there was a promising stage for Pidcock, this was it. Perhaps the form we saw today will carry into the coming stages, with their torturously long ascents, but that’s not ground where we’ve seen the multi-discipline master master in the past. This may well have been his only real shot this Vuelta.
Stage Top Ten (Note: riders were not given finishing places, due to the stage being shortened and the finish neutralized.)
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