"He's not leaving the race" - Bruyneel and Martin on Sylvan Adams, Israel - Premier Tech, Vuelta drama and Pidcock versus Vingegaard

Stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana was a very eventful one to say the least. There was no stage winner but we've had Tom Pidcock on the attack, Jonas Vingegaard gaining time on João Almeida, and several protests that led to a neutralization - although there were still GC differences. Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin have shared their opinion on the chaotic day.

"... When Pidcock attacked on the [Alto de] Pike, he did something that not many people have ever done outside of Taddei Pogacar and that is drop Jonas Vingegaard," Martin argued in The Move podcast. "Vingegaard eventually got back on. And we'll never know who would have won that stage. I probably would have guessed". Both were disappointed that there was no stage up for grabs, as Vingegaard had his son's birthday and Pidcock was aiming for his first Grand Tour win of the year. The Briton wasn't aware that the riders wouldn't be heading to the finish line, and believed there was still a stage win up for grabs.

"I probably would guess that Tom Pidcock would have won the sprint between them... He was pretty devastated in this post-race interview. I'm sure Q36.5 is very disappointed. I'll just say personally, I thought this looking at the scenes as sad as it is to cancel the end of the stage. I kind of thought they made the right decision. I think this preserves the GC competition instead of neutralizing the whole day because Visma worked very hard all day to control the stage, to set up Vingegaard to win, and I assume they thought take time".

Johan Bruyneel was quite surprised with Tom Pidcock's attack and believes it has enhanced significantly his chances of finishing on the final podium. "Event of the day for me about the race is the strength of Tom Pidcock. He felt great on that last climb, accelerated and was able to drop Jonas Vingegaard twice in one kilometer, which is true it hasn't happened a lot. Pogacar has done it, not many other riders have done it".

"Maybe called you a few years ago in Pyrenees, but that was not prime Jonas Vingegaard. So, that must give Pidcock and his team incredible morale boost. And, as we said, you know, I said yesterday it starts to look really realistic for Pidcock to be on the podium after today".

Martin: "Is this guy weighing like 56 kilos right now? And he said, he's putting out career best power numbers at this race. So I think it's safe to say Jonas Vingegaard is not putting out career best power numbers".

Nevertheless both have made gains in an explosive finish that is not meaningless, and both have taken a hit on João Almeida. However with the high mountains arriving soon, Pidcock is not likely to have the same capacity to match his two direct rivals at the time being, and will most likely be thinking of trying to preserve his podium position.

"The protest and the fact that there were no stage results was a bit of a bummer, right? I mean, it's not a surprise. I think we could see it coming and, and honestly, I'm afraid this is going to continue because today the protesters, obviously they they obtained something. They got the race to be canceled," Bruyneel argued.

"So they're not going to stop. I think it was the right call, it became too risky at the finish line you know, we saw protesters pushing the barriers away".

Spencer Martin believes that this puts the peloton under danger and risks soon affecting the GC fight even further. "I will say like yesterday (stage 10, ed.) there was a, I don't know if you saw, there was a protester in the middle of like a 40 mile an hour peloton and you think like this is not tenable and then someone crashed because of it. So eventually it's going to affect the GC if they're unfurling banners on, on the steepest climbs and the riders can't get through. Like we might just not be able to have a GC race here or a race of any kind. And I think if you, even if you kicked out Israel - Premier Tech, I think you would still have protesters". 

"I'm just going to tell people, I know, I personally know Sylvan Adams, think what you, you can all have your opinions of them. I just tell you, he's not leaving the race," he added, with Bruyneel arguing that he would sue the UCI - which the Belgian pundit also criticized over the lack of action.