DISCUSSION Vuelta a España Stage 11 | Did race organizers take the right decision neutralizing the stage?

The eleventh stage of the Vuelta a España featured an explosive route with several short but steep climbs that were expected to shake up the race. The start of the stage was uphill, with riders tackling a third category ascent. Mads Pedersen was one of the first men to attack and went solo for a while, with many unsuccessful counterattacks behind him.

Only Marc Soler and Orluis Aular managed to join the Dane, due to Visma’s insistence to prevent the break from having too many units. Jonas Vingegaard wanted to fight for the stage, as it was the birthday of his son, and the team wanted to make that happen.

Soler took most of the responsibility to pull in the break, but Visma didn’t let that group survive for too long. The peloton was thus regrouped until Alto del Vivero (4.3km à 7.9%), in which more counterattacks took place. Mikel Landa and Santiago Buitrago were in front together, albeit not for long, as the Spaniard suffered back cramps and had to take the foot off the gas.

Buitrago stayed in front until Joao Almeida attacked twice back in peloton. The Portuguese has been trying during the last stages but with little success, and today was no exception.

While riders were climbing the ascent to Alto del Vivero for the second time, a group of anti-Israel protestors invaded the race with a banner. And a few kilometres later, race organizers announced that the stage would finish 3km before the finish line due to the risk of incidents, with no stage winner.

Only the GC men had something to fight for, which considerably reduced the already thin peloton. In the final climb to Alto del Pike (2.1km à 9.2%), Tom Pidcock launched a devastating attack that not even Vingegaard could follow. The Briton was caught by the Dane in the descent and both arrived to the improvised new finish line, gaining 10 seconds on their main rivals.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

Well, political protests took over. They see Vuelta as a good platform to get visibility and it keeps getting worse by the day. There needs to be taken action so we can have the spectacle we want to see. We cant also have the organizers deciding to change the zone where times are controlled when we're only about 10km away from the finish line.

After the 1st passage on the finish line in Bilbao it was visible that the area was well crowded with protestors, as some even tried to bring down the fences that only held on because there were several staff members holding it. The organizers also knew during the whole day that this was going to happen, they were warned that even political parties were encouraging this sort of behaviour and they should have been more alert.

Fortunatelly it didnt result in any physical consequences to the riders (unlike yesterday for example) but we ended up witnessing a fine stage getting ruined. It is hard to control this when you're racing on open roads, but they actually had the course with a double pass on the finish line and they knew beforehand that this was about to happen. Organizers should have communicated the changes on the course sooner.

Well it was just about as much of an anti-climax as we could have predicted. Visma worked all day long to give Vingegaard a chance at winning the stage because of his son's birthday, and so it was a GC day with no doubt. Almeida attacking and showing aggressive spirit, and then Tom Pidcock's attack on the final climb delivered proper GC action, even dropping Vingegaard in the process. There's no moral winner of the day either however, as the Dane wanted a chance to fight for the win, and so did Pidcock.

Pidcock crashed at the Giro gravel stage where he was the main favourite, and now that he was set to win a stage, it was neutralized. The stars have not aligned for the Briton thus far, who has been criticized all year long for not not flashy wins.

Obviously the situation at the finish is the main topic however. This was a massive shame for the sport. It's a complex topic, but the truth is no-one is winning and everyone is having negative consequences over this. The riders' safety is in danger and the ongoing protests have not only already caused crashed but are actively putting the peloton at risk, as it's been seen before that there are organized 'attacks' meant to block the road and attract attention. This means this can happen at any moment, and the teams can't anticipate it.

The Vuelta organizers are not forced to remove Israel - Premier Tech from the race, neither will they in their own decision, because the UCI rules aren't being broken and they don't want to take the heat. The riders obviously don't want to make their political opinions public or go against their own peloton companions and so there won't be discussions in public; the UCI is the one who has the power to make the decision. But it's not too likely that they will expell the team from the race.

No-one wants to take the heat of making a difficult decision (understandibly) but the problem is there is a small fraction of the anti-Israel protestors that are willing to take actions that endanger the riders and is actively leaving a dark mark on the race. It's not up to me to discuss the morals of having the Israeli team in the race, although I believe it's removal would be justified - but this is something that the UCI should act on not because of the Vuelta, but because of what is considered common sense.

But the protestors that are interfering with the race are giving an easy excuse for anyone to hate the pro-Palestinian movement or make generalizations, giving it a bad image and pushing public support away from what they are trying to support. And it is incredibly triggering to have seen comments on social media from people whom I believed were fans of the sport, calling for more road blockings, it is disgusting behaviour. Riders are endangered, and fans have the spectacle ruined in some way.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA blew up the principle of sporting neutrality. They banned Russian clubs and national teams from every competition, a political decision dressed up as moral clarity. In doing so, football’s leaders set a precedent that now poisons cycling. They taught the world that participation itself is a political act and that sport will take sides.

That is why protesters now zero in on Israel Premier Tech in the Vuelta. They can point to football’s choice and say: the rule is already written. If Russia was thrown out, why not Israel? The logic is football’s own. You cannot go on with business as usual — unless you are ready to admit that one war matters to you and another does not.

The UCI’s claim of neutrality looks hollow, but the blame lies with FIFA and UEFA. By politicizing competition in one case, they forced every other federation into an impossible corner. They turned every start list into a referendum on global conflicts. The uproar in the Vuelta is not cycling’s doing — it is the fallout of football’s shitshow in claiming the right to decide which wars disqualify a nation and which do not.

Now cycling faces a reckoning it never wanted. One of its grand tours, the Vuelta, is in danger of being defined by protests rather than racing. If the sport clings to neutrality, it will be accused of double standards. If it caves to pressure, it becomes overtly political. FIFA and UEFA created this trap. Cycling must now confront it head-on — or accept that even the grand tours cannot escape the flames football lit.

Pidcock won the stage, Vingegaard 2nd, João Almeida dropped a few seconds, oh, wait! This would have been the scenario if everything had gone smoothly, but unfortunately it didn't. A bunch of arseholes have been trying to make a name for themselves since the start of the Vuelta, and today they've done it, they've jeopardised sporting truth by slowing down the group on a climb and by not allowing the stage to finish in Bilbao and have a winner.

I'm not going to get into political issues, but it was disgraceful and I don't blame the organisation for most of it, they tried to spread policemen all over the route, they didn't have an easy task.

Focusing on the sporting side, João Almeida was once again very offensive, but the tough slopes of the final climb were not exactly suited to his characteristics, but to those of Tom Pidcock, who even sat out Jonas Vingegaard, fantastic. They both gained a few seconds, Almeida, Hindley and Gall were also very good, but the Angliru is where you'll see the great climbers.

Visma was once again very strong, with Jorgenson, Campenaerts, Kuss and Tullett supporting the red jersey. Once again, Emirates made a tactical mistake, leaving Marc Soler alone on the break for many kilometres, losing a tactical card for the overall, but they were better on the last two climbs, trying to impose pace to prepare for João Almeida's attacks.

What happened today at the Vuelta a España is the sole and absolute fault of the UCI and all the entities that manage sports worldwide. Retaliation against athletes on a cycling team is unacceptable; it denigrates the sport, and it's up to the governing bodies to take appropriate action to avoid this kind of embarrassment.

Consider the case of Russia. Russia was banned from the sport. There are athletes who continue to compete at the highest level, but they don't carry the country's flag next to their name. Israel has been committing genocide in Palestine for a long time, and the country's actions are only intensifying the protests.

The race organizers knew about these protests in advance, the police knew about the protests... but what did they do? Nothing. A yellow card for the Vuelta organizers and the police. A red card for the UCI.

In the race itself, the UAE continues to demonstrate blatant amateurism. Marc Soler was the hero of the day. Did he wear himself out to get a few measly mountain points? Wasn't Jay Vine enough? Did you see Visma, with five men alongside Vingegaard? The one who should have left the UAE was João Almeida, not Juan Ayuso. João Almeida is being disrespected day after day, mountain after mountain.

No, it's not because he's my compatriot that I defend him. I write and have this speech because it deeply irritates me to see an UAE do to its leader what no other team in the general classification does to its leader.

Hats off to Tom Pidcock!! What tremendous strength. On Vingegaard's son's birthday, the Brit twice knocked the Dane down on the short but incredibly tough climb to Pike's Top. If the stage had ended there, I would have been left blowing on the cake. Almeida was aggressive, but at the moment of Pidcock's attack, he was covered by Jorgenson, and this cost him the wheels of the two attackers.

In the end, he minimized his losses, moved up a place in the general classification, and has Pidcock on his tail. For those who say the Vuelta is already decided... we still have a long way to go until Madrid, and Vingegaard won't have the red jersey in his pocket guaranteed. We're going to have a lot of fireworks...

The reality is that it's a shame for the race. On a day like today, it's very difficult to avoid the political topic, but I'm here to talk about sport and that's what I'm going to do.

Very impressed by Tom Pidcock, who on the Angliru we'll see if he's a real podium option or just looking for a stage win. Jonas Vingegaard is taking advantage of Tadej Pogacar's absence to do what the Slovenian does when he takes part in a race.

Visma controlled the race the whole time and had the breakaway attempts under control at all times. Mikel Landa, Marc Soler and Orluis Aular were among those who tried it. Mads Pedersen was also active, probably to lend a hand to Giulio Ciccone at the finish. However, no breakaway was forged.

I disagree with Rúben Silva, in the sense that I actually think there is a morale winner, and a big one. After all the criticism surrounding Tom Pidcock, he has been showing great shape to fight for the podium of a GC for the first time in his career on the one hand, and on the other he managed to drop Jonas Vingegaard. How many riders can brag about that?

Jonas always seemed one step below Pogacar but several above the immediate competitors, and Pidcock was never of those. Great feelings for Tom, he started the Vuelta with some doubts but has been improving day after day. He is right behind Almeida now, the fight for the podium is heating up.

I didn’t get the point of Marc Soler’s performance today, but I am not really expecting to understand anything UAE do anymore, so I cannot say I am surprised. He stayed half of the day in front, pulling most of the time and wasting so much energy in a lost cause, since Visma was not letting him go clear. He was obviously dead afterwards and couldn’t help Almeida. I don’t know if UAE’s plan was to have Soler in the break, but they should have realized much earlier that it was just not meant to be today.

The protests and the subsequent neutralization of the race are the obvious headlines of the day. Protestors actually got what they wanted: disruption of the race and global visibility. It is something that is just impossible to fully prevent, as it is logistically impossible to make sure the 150-200km where the race passes by are free from interferences.

I think the success of today’s protests will encourage more people to do the same the next stages, and the organizers know it. Together with the UCI, they will have to take some drastic decisions if they don’t want this situation to get worse and worse. I also don’t rule out a voluntary withdrawal by Israel – Premier Tech, which would probably be the “easiest” solution, or a joint statement from the rest of the riders asking for the team to abandon in order to restore the order.

Still, I think protests lose legitimacy the moment they are endangering professional cyclists that are just doing their job. Yesterday they made Simone Petilli – an Intermarché rider – to crash, and he could have been seriously hurt. Today nobody crashed miraculously, but the next time – if there is one – might have much worse consequences.

Suddenly jumping in front of riders coming 40-50km/h is not the way to protest, even if you can get the outcome you want. Instead, what some demonstrators did during the neutralized part before the launch of the stage – invade the road well before the riders and the race organizers car arrived to make sure there were no casualties – would be an acceptable way. Anything else putting others’ lives at risk is not.