Tom Pidcock teases Jonas Vingegaard on Pike Bidea

La Vuelta faced an attractive stage with start and finish in Bilbao, with a profile almost identical to the one that opened the Tour de France in 2023, including the ascent to the Pike Bidea wall towards the finish line. A day that promised to be exciting but in which the protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza that have been taking place in the last stages forced the stage to end 3 km from the finish line, leaving the winner of the stage deserted.

Protests against the Israeli genocide in Palestine leave stage 11 of La Vuelta without a winner

157 kilometers and 7 ports and the rugged terrain of the Basque geography was the menu that the organization of La Vuelta had prepared for today. The stage started with an initial incident with protesters stopping the development of the neutralized section, but from there, normality returned with a beautiful commotion when facing the first climb, Laukiz, just after the start.

It was Mads Pedersen who managed to open a gap, taking Joel Nicolau with him who was struggling to keep up with the Danish rider, and on the next climb, Sollube, he fell back while, from behind, after several attacks, Marc Soler and Orluis Aular reached him, along with Pedersen, they formed the breakaway of the day.

RECOMENDADO

This bike blurs the boundaries between gravel and road: we tested the Orbea Terra Race

How to adjust your bike to avoid injuries and ride more comfortably

Almost €20,000! The S-Works Turbo Levo 4 LTD comes with the latest Fox inverted fork and a unique finish

UAE continues to add stages while Vingegaard, today, is already the leader of La Vuelta

Pinarello presents the new F series: perfect balance starting at 3,400€

10 tips for safer and faster downhills on road bikes

They barely managed to open a gap of one minute, with a Visma-Lease a Bike team keeping the road completely under control as the kilometers passed until, on the first of the two climbs to Vivero, movements occurred again, reaching the expected moment by the local fans with the attack of Mikel Landa who caught up with the small group that had managed to reach the front in the previous climb, Morga, and moved forward with Santiago Buitrago.

They crossed the finish line on Gran Vía de Bilbao with the atmosphere between the public and the security forces already very heated, and when the leading duo was heading towards the second ascent to Vivero, Mikel Landa's back said enough, a problem that has been weighing him down since the beginning of La Vuelta as a result of the serious vertebral fracture he suffered in the Giro d'Italia.

Buitrago wouldn't last long in the lead either as Almeida would start his offensive with several changes of pace that were responded to without major issues by Jonas Vingegaard and a superb Matteo Jorgenson in protecting his leader, so they crowned this penultimate climb of the day without major differences.

In the flat transition terrain between the end of the descent and the start of Pike Bidea, the teams' radios received the news from the organization: as safety could not be guaranteed in the finish area, it was decided to take the times three kilometers from the conclusion and the winner of the stage would be deserted.

Even so, this did not calm the competitive spirits of the favorites. The UAE climb began trying to increase the pace, but Almeida seemed to not have enough legs while Visma-Lease a Bike had three men in addition to Vingegaard and, when everything pointed to a new exhibition by the Danish rider, Tom Pidcock appeared with a sharp and sustained attack on the very steep ramps of Pike Bidea, finding the perfect terrain for his small body to even drop Vingegaard.

The Danish rider managed to recover and reach the wheel of the Q36.5 cyclist with his head, and he attacked again opening a gap that now seemed definitive. However, he barely crossed with a 5-second difference and after the banner, a false flat where, again, Vingegaard managed to reach the wheel of the British rider. Both launched into the descent to finish with about 10 seconds of advantage over a quartet with Almeida, Jorgenson, Hindley, and Gall.