Vuelta a España stage 11 LIVE – Visma-Lease a Bike keeping strong break close in Basque hills

The gap is down to 30 seconds now.

Soler is pushing on ahead of Aular and Pedersen.

It's so beautiful and green in the Basque Country.

Big old shift for Dylan van Baarle today. He's been setting tempo for ages, it feels like.

Not long until the next climb, which is 8.5km long, but only 3.5% average.

Wheel change for Juan Ayuso.

The gap is notably fallingg now, down to 47 seconds.

It will be interesting to see how this stage goes if they're brought back early.

Snaking down the descent now.

Three climbs done, four to go....

It's Jonas Vingegaard's son's birthday today, apparently, so he wants to win the stage for him.

Very sweet. Poor Marc Soler and Mads Pedersen, hopes dashed by a baby.

Visma are still keeping this very close. 1:10 again now.

KOM: Balcón de Bizkaia (cat 3)

They roll over the KOM in order, with Soler taking max points.

His teammate Jay Vine is in the lead of the classification.

The gap is actually going up, thanks to Soler's efforts.

It's 1:20 now. 2.4km to climb.

Pedersen is finding this climb a bit hard, but still with the leaders.

Soler is setting the pace.

Visma are keeping it steady on the climb for now.

Climb: Balcón de Bizkaia (4.4 km at 5.3%)

The leaders are onto the next climb.

Another cat. 3, steepest of the day so far but still not a killer.

100km to go

Just about to start the next climb.

It will be very interesting what this does for the break.

The gap is back up to a minute now.

10km until the start of the next climb.

Pedersen and Aular were just talking, with Pedersen pointing at Soler.

Basically saying "this guy is the reason we're not getting a gap".

The gap is coming down a bit, it's at 45 seconds now.

Visma would happily catch this trio, with Soler such a clear GC threat (even if that's not what he's there to do).

Here's an inside look at this morning's safety meeting:

'If it’s all peaceful, then there’s no problem' – Riders meet with organisers and UCI on Vuelta a España start line over safety amid multiple pro-Palestine protests

Visma aren't chasing it down right now, but they're clearly keeping it close.

That could change on the next climb, though.

115km to go

The leaders have 55 seconds. It's been steady for a while here.

The leaders have 50 seconds now.

Visma are pacing the peloton. Not clear if they want to close that gap or just control it.

Those counter-attackers have been brought back by Visma.

A couple more riders are attacking, and Ben Tulett from Visma is following them.

30 seconds for the leaders now.

Soler being in this group might be a problem – he's only 3:30 down on GC.

The three leaders only have a gap of 15 seconds, so I won't consider this deal done just yet.

KOM: Alto de Sollube (cat 3)

The trio roll across and Pedersen takes the maximum points.

Mountain points won't help his campaign for green, of course.

Aular can't or won't take a turn.

Not great for a three man group to have a passenger.

Kudos to this man, he hasn't stopped attacking today.

Can see just behind that Visma are trying to close the door on the peloton.

They'd be more or less happy with this trio.

Two riders are with Pedersen – Marc Soler and Orluis Aular.

They're speeding along to try and make this stick.

Peloton all back together, and Pedersen attacks again.

The Dane is so strong.

A group of 25 or so riders have a little gap on the rest of. the peloton, but it's not really going anywhere.

Visma are keeping it close, and in fact the gap has just closed.

The bunch is extremely strung out already.

Pedersen and Ayuso are still hovering around the front.

Pedersen is caught.

Visma are also trying to shut down the riders who are trying to escape.

135km to go

20km completed. Not a very long stage today.

The aggressors are about to catch up to Pedersen as the fight for the break continues.

Ben O'Connor is struggling early. Ouch.

He's not having a great race.

Pedersen is still pushing on alone in the lead.

Lots of movement and attacking at the front of the peloton.

This climb is the best time to try and make a gap.

Riders are already dropping, including Jasper Philipsen, as the gruppetto forms early.

KOM: Alto de Sollube (7.3km at 4.2%)

Pedersen has dropped Nicolau on the base of the climb. Impressive!

The climb is reigniting the attacks in the peloton as a fresh batch of riders come past the chasers.

Jardi van der Lee and Jesus Herrada have joined Heßmann in the chase. Gijs Leemreize is trying to bridge from the peloton too.

Chris Harper is caught, Michel Heßmann is pushing on to catch Labrosse and Glivar.

Some images of the stoppage/protest earlier.

More riders are attacking out of the peloton to try and join the leaders.

Visma are letting two more go, but maybe not much more than that.

Pedersen is looking back behind him, hoping some more riders are coming up to join them.

Gal Glivar and Jordan Labrosse are chasing, with Harper and the Movistar rider just behind them.

Through every town there are big crowds of people with Palestine flags.

This must be causing a bit of anxiety for the riders. You can see why they had a meeting about it this morning, and why it's becoming a big issue.

Looks like Chris Harper is attacking out of the peloton for Jayco, with a Movistar rider on his wheel.

Okay, a new batch of riders are attacking to try and bridge.

It's Visma who are making it hard for anyone to get away.

Chasers are caught, and Pedersen and Nicolau have about 15 seconds of a gap.

They're working well together but ideally need some stronger riders to join them.

The next climb is coming in 10km, the Alto de Sollube.

This a more substantial climb than the first one, at 7.3km long.

Bruno Armirail is trying to bridge up to the two leaders.

The five-rider group was caught.

Pedersen and Nicolau are pushing on up front, with a five-rider group chasing them.

Visma are speeding along behind though.

KOM: Alto de Laukiz (cat 3)

Back to the race: Mads Pedersen is on the attack, with Joel Nicolau on his wheel.

Nicolau wins the max KOM points.

Here is some more context from Daniel Friebe on this morning's meeting.

The stoppage earlier avoided any incident, and the protest did not appear to be violent, so it depends how riders are defining 'peaceful'.

Visma are up front here, so they do want to keep an eye on who is escaping.

It's Van Baarle and Campenaerts on security guard duty today.

Dunbar is launching on his own now, stretching out the bunch.

Beloki is on his wheel, and Ayuso is in the mix too.

Kelland O'Brien is on the attack with his teammate Eddie Dunbar on his wheel.

Jayco are super visible up front, as are EF.

Climb: Alto de Laukiz (4km at 4.7%)

We're onto the first climb – my apologies for saying the first climb was after 20km, that's actually the second.

The Alto de Laukiz starts straight away.

Official start

Flag drops and away we go!

Visma are immediately on the front, they'll be policing who goes in the break today it seems like.

In more lighthearted news, Jonas VIngegaard received a special gift this morning from Athletic Bilbao.

2.5km left of the roll out.

That early protest could be a sign of more things to come. The Basque Country has been particularly fervent in its support for Palestine, dating back decades.

Race restarted

The peloton is rolling again.

The riders are stopped behind the red lead car.

Protesters are at the side of the road holding flags and a banner.

Race stopped

The race has already been stopped, in the neutral, by protesters in the road.

Team representatives, the race organisers, the CPA and the UCI met at the start this morning.

We're not privy to the full outcome, but clearly it wasn't to expel Israel-Premier Tech – not today, at least.

Tom Pidcock spoke to Eurosport before the start. He's a favourite today as the course should suit him.

He's hoping Visma keep things together so the GC group can go for the stage win. That's what he's hoping to achieve in this race, and sees today as a possible opportunity.

The riders are ready for a pretty full on start today.

The first climb starts after just under 20km.

Israel-Premier Tech have started today, by the way.

Neutral start

We're rolling.

There's a 6.6km neutral zone today.

Abandons

Two non-starters this morning:

• Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
• Paul Ourselin (Cofidis)

The riders should be about to roll-out for the neutral start...

It's a very red outfit for Jonas Vingegaard, plus bar tape, though not a red bike.

He said he wants to keep red until Madrid this time after already wearing the jersey twice in this race.

Not sure there is any precedence for the peloton essentially voting a team out.

But it does seem like Israel-Premier Tech's presence is making the race a target, and more dangerous things are happening.

Wow, interesting developments at the start on the protest issue, per The Cycling Podcast's Daniel Friebe:

Obligatory dog content from the start.

There's a new red jersey to keep an eye out for today, because Jonas Vingegaard moved back into the race lead on stage 10.

Vuelta a España standings 2025 – general classification after stage 10

In the headlines this morning is the fall out of a protestor incident that happened yesterday. The TV cameras avoided showing it, but a handful of people ran into the road, and a rider crashed, which the peloton are obviously unhappy about.

'We just want to race' – Riders speak out against pro-Palestine protests that caused Vuelta a España crash

Looking for a more detailed breakdown of the stage?

Read our full preview: 'It could be even more decisive than Angliru' – Brutal Basque Country hills near Bilbao set to bring 'chaos' to Vuelta a España stage 11

We have what looks like a very exciting stage coming up today.

157km through the punchy Basque hills, with seven categorised climbs on the route. Here's a look at the profile:

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 11 of the Vuelta a España.