Protests force Vuelta a España stage to be neutralised with no winner

The finish of stage 11 of the Vuelta a España has been neutralised, with no winner to be declared at the end of the stage and GC times set to be taken at 3km from the line in Bilbao.

Vuelta organisers announced the measures as the riders raced towards the finish of the hilly 157.4km stage. The decision was taken due to disruption caused by pro-Palestine protesters at the finish.

This year’s Vuelta has been affected by protests on several previous occasions. The stage 5 team time trial saw Israel-Premier Tech held up by several protesters in the road, while on stage 10, protesters stepped into the road ahead of the peloton, causing Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Wanty) to crash.

Stage 11 saw riders meet with organisers and the UCI to discuss ongoing safety concerns as a result of the protests. Rider CPA representative Elia Viviani (Lotto) concluded that the race would continue as normal so long as the protests remain peaceful going forward.

“If it’s all peaceful, then there’s no problem, so the race will proceed normally. We are dependent on that. On our part, if it’s peaceful, then we’ll simply restart. If there are falls, danger and so on, then we’ll decide what we do, because they [the organisers] don’t know what’ll happen,” he told the Cycling Podcast.

The start of the stage was affected by further protests, however, with the peloton stopping in the neutral zone as police moved protesters out of the road.

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