Britain’s Tom Pidcock is feeling confident of a podium place in La Vuelta after passing a vital test on stage 18 to extend his third-place lead by three seconds in Valladolid.
Thursday’s 12.2km time-trial had been shortened from 27km due to safety concerns around pro-Palestine demonstrations, just as stage 11 had been truncated in Bilbao last week 3km before the end because of protesters lining the road at the finish line.
Pidcock, 26, had felt he was the rider to have lost the most when that stage was neutralised, having managed to drop both João Almeida, who is second overall, and Jonas Vingegaard, the race leader, on the final steep climb, feeling he could have won the day if it were not for the organiser’s decision.
“After Bilbao that stage took a lot out of me mentally to deal with it and I think I suffered at the last part of the second week, but this week I feel like I did in the first part of the race, I feel super good,” he said after Thursday’s stage. “I am definitely confident [about finishing on the podium], but I’m not getting complacent.”
Since Bilbao, Pidcock has maintained his strong form and was second on the summit finish on stage 17. But there was something of a question mark over his time-trialling ability. Stage 18 was never one he would win, but he managed to tick off one more box on the way to a first grand-tour podium finish by riding a solid effort and now sits 39sec ahead of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley — extending the gap by three seconds — with just one last real challenge to come on Saturday.
“I think that was probably my best ever time-trial looking at the numbers I was doing,” he said. “I can be pretty happy. We didn’t focus at all on the time-trial before [La Vuelta], we just wanted to improve my climbing. I felt super strong. It’s the first time I’ve been in this situation. For me to finish on the podium is bigger than a stage win.”
Vingegaard remains in red
TIM DE WAELE/GETTY IMAGES
UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Almeida, meanwhile, has kept his chances of overall victory alive after closing the gap on Vingegaard, of Visma-Lease a Bike, to just 40sec before the final three stages. But if Pidcock was the biggest loser on a disrupted stage 11, then there is a case to say it was the Portuguese rider who lost the most on Thursday due to the shortened stage.
In just 12km, the 27-year-old cut Vingegaard’s lead by 10sec — who knows what he could have done on the full route.
Ganna, of Ineos Grenadiers, showed his famous time-trial pedigree by winning the stage
JAVIER LIZON/EPA
“I think I did the best I could,” Almeida said. “It’s not an effort that really suits me a lot, it’s just a pity it was not the 27km but it is what it is. [The situation is] the same for everybody. As a cyclist we adapt quite a lot to any scenario.”
The stage victory was taken by Ineos Grenadiers’ Filippo Ganna. The Italian time-trial specialist managed to beat UAE’s Jay Vine by just one second through the spectator-lined streets of Valladolid and after three hours sitting in the stage leader’s “hot seat”, unable to relax until the final man crossed the line, he took the British team’s third victory of the race before Friday’s flat stage 19 between Rueda and Guijuelo.
While stage 18 managed to finish unaffected by pro-Palestine protests, the organisers are still concerned about disruption aimed at the Israel-Premier Tech team in the final three days on the way to Madrid on Sunday.
Speaking on Cadena Ser’s El Larguero programme, Spain’s minister of sport and education, Pilar Alegría, called for IPT to withdraw from La Vuelta, comparing it to Russia’s ban from multiple sports since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Israel-Premier Tech are co-owned by the Canadian-Israeli property billionaire Sylvan Adams.
“The question is, should this occur with Israel? My answer is clear. Yes, it should,” Alegría said. IPT has repeatedly said it intends to finish the race as pulling out “sets a dangerous precedent in the sport of cycling not only for Israel-Premier Tech, but for all teams”.
An extra 1,500 police officers will be brought in for the final two stages of the race: Saturday’s mountainous and all-important stage 20 and Sunday’s finale in Madrid.
Stage 18 (Valladolid-Valladolid, 12.2km individual time-trial): 1 F Ganna (It; Ineos Grenadiers) 13min 0sec, 2 J Vine (Aus; UAE Emirates-XRG) +1sec, 3 J Almeida (Port; UAE Emirates-XRG) +8, 4 B Armirail (Fr; Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +10, 5 I Oliveira (Port; UAE Emirates-XRG) +11, 6 S Kung (Swit; Groupama-FDJ) +12, 7 K O’Brien (Aus; Jayco-AlUla) +15, 8 A Segaert (Bel; Lotto) +16, 9 J Vingegaard (Den; Visma-Lease a Bike) +18, 10 D Hoole (Neth; Lidl-Trek) +19.
General classification: 1 J Vingegaard (Den; Visma-Lease a Bike) 65hr 7min 13sec, 2 J Almeida (Port; UAE Emirates-XRG) +40sec, 3 T Pidcock (GB; Q36.5 Pro Cycling) +2:39, 4 J Hindley (Aus; Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +3:18, 5 G Pellizzari (It; Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) +4:19, 6 M Riccitello (US; Israel-Premier Tech) +5:17, 7 F Gall (Aut; Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +5:20, 8 S Kuss (US; Visma-Lease a Bike) +7:26, 9 T Traeen (Nor; Bahrain Victorious) +7:42, 10 M Jorgenson (US; Visma-Lease a Bike) +10:19.