This week (starting on Tuesday after the first rest day) will probably be the harder of all stages blocks.
First we come back to the Navarese Pyrenees, but then we travel westwards again, along the Atlantic coast, or more exactly for the climbs, along the Cantabrian range. Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia will be visited in order.
Standings after stage 9
General
- T. Træen 🇳🇴 Bahrain
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 37″
- J. Almeida 🇵🇹 UAE – 1′15″
- T. Pidcock 🇬🇧 Q36.5 – 1′35″
- F. Gall 🇨🇭 Décathlon – 2′14″
- G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 2′42″
- L. Fortunato 🇮🇹 Astana – 2′47″
- M. Jorgenson 🇺🇸 Visma – 2′49″
- J. Hindley 🇦🇺 Bora – 2′53″
- G. Pellizzari 🇮🇹 Bora – 2′53″
- E. Bernal 🇨🇴 Ineos – 2′57″ and then 6 others riders before 4′30″
Points
- M. Pedersen 🇩🇰 Lidl-trek – 120 pts
- E. Vernon 🇬🇧 IPT – 111 pts
- J. Philipsen 🇧🇪 Alpecin – 105 pts
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 100 pts
- G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 88 pts
- D. Gaudu 🇫🇷 FDJ – 62 pts
NB : only Ciccone and Vingegaard swapped places since we arrived in Spain, otherwise the members and order of top-6 is the same as it was.
Mountain
- J. Vine 🇦🇺 UAE – 34 pts
- L. Vervaeke 🇧🇪 Soudal-QS – 23 pts
- J. Ayuso 🇪🇸 UAE – 20 pts
- S. Quinn 🇺🇸 EF – 18 pts
- J. Nicolau 🇪🇸 Caja Rural – 16 pts
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 15 pts
Teams (rounded)
- UAE 🇳🇱
- Visma – 6′30″
- Astana – 14′15″
- Soudal-QS – 21′30″
- Décathlon – 25′45″
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Stage 10: Tuesday 2, 12:55–13:08 → 17:15–17:45
A type of profile we already met on this Vuelta, with a final climb in the Pyrenees (border with France) after a few hills. The final climb is actually the first and main part of the Col de la Pierre Saint-martin (from the Spanish side of course).
Gaudu’s Padun moment lasted only 2 days. Well, by nature, Padun moments do last 2 days 😀 He seems back for good to his 2025 level and his Tour de l’Ain performances: today, he finished 20 minutes behind (juste before the good old Viviani) and I heard he was already dropped by the peloton way before the small 3rd cat climb, in one of the even smaller 5% climbs.
It turns out that the rider who fell where there were many pro-palestinian demonstrators didn’t directly fall because of them but because he tripped over the truncheon a guard had dropped 😀
Stage 11: Wednesday 3, 13:30–13:51 → 17:20–17:40
A very Basquish course for this stage in the Basque Country. It borrows a few miles from the Circuit of Getxo, from which they use the Alto de Pike, but not from the same side if I read the maps correctly.
Mads Pedersen in beast mode, but you have to wonder if he’s happy or unhappy that Soler went along. But if there’s one guy who can go hard all day and still make it it’s Pedersen.
Edit: Turns out to be a bad thing, but I wonder why Soler stays out there. He’s not gonna be worth much as a rider ahead, and surely they’re not aiming for the stage again with a domestique? In any case, Visma is having none of it.
Soler ahead wasn’t a bad thing for UAE in their struggle with Visma (in my idea they only care about this UAE vs Visma fight), as it forced Visma to pull all along, probably harder than they would have needed otherwise. But in the end, today wasn’t a day where it made a difference: there were still 4 Visma around Vingegaard* in the last group…
I suppose it was a way to test them, but it seemed like it could have been done smarter. Oh well, stage neutralized anyway…
I don’t understand why it is apparently considered cancelled (technically speaking, there was no neutralisation during the race, except perhaps the last 3 km, but what they did is more like a course modification). They went through all the GPM and through the Intermediate Sprint all right, and they went to the displaced finish line (on the 3 km sign, which per UCI rule 2.6.027bis is always provided with a timing device).
I hope that they will come to their senses and at least reinstate all the GPM and I.S. points.
When they stopped the race in the Alps on the Tour of France 2019, it wasn’t planned like here (where they had over 30 km to decide, inform riders and organise themselves), and they retroactively decided that the end had been on a mountain pass. So when riders passed said mountain pass, they didn’t know yet that it would be considered the finish line. After the stage, commissars of course kept all GPM and I.S. points scored until there. They even reconstructed (from videos, I think) the timings at this mountain pass which of course was devoid of timing devices. They gave no victory and final points because riders didn’t know that the end was on this mountain pass, which seems OK. It all made sense; even though I would have preferred they set the new finish at the bottom of the pass, as riders would have known it in advance (it could have been understandable to cancel timing gaps too).
But in Portugal in Februrary, they already cancelled the results of the first stage of the Tour of Algarve. Just because many riders took the wrong way for the final sprint, not only they cancelled the stage victory, but they also tore all the GPM and I.S. points from the breakaway who had worked all day to gather them!
Today, it looks like they will apply the same stupid decisions. Except that they intend to record the timing gaps. Which may be seen as even weirder (keeping a result established in perturbed/modified conditions while cancelling results established in normal conditions). And of course totally unfair to guys like Pedersen and Nicolau who worked very hard to score points before anything happened. But according to UCI rules (2.2.029), commissars can basically do anything they fancy.
Ah! They have reinstated all GPM and I.S. points!
Fine. So the only missing things are related to the finish: no finish ranking, therefore no stage winner, no points for points classification on the finish, no UCI points.
I guess that’s OK now. It is just a bit weird to count timing gaps on the finish but no ranking. Let’s say that it was made so that there wouldn’t be a sprint for ranking on a finish that was not prepared for that.
I suppose it was a way to test them, but it seemed like it could have been done smarter.
Well, it certainly didn’t work. But UAE seems to be facing the same problem that Visma was facing on the Tour de France: they can try all sorts of strategies, but as long as their leader cannot drop his (stronger) opponent from his back wheel, and there is no incident, there is nothing that they can do.
They should start considering the Pidcock issue, too. I suppose they bet he will drop on true mountain stages with several passes, but they will have to make sure it happens by riding harder and not on-and-off, otherwise he may as well pass the such stages which are scarce this year.
Stage 13: Friday 5, 11:50–12:10 → 17:15–17:50
The Angliru stage. Strictly speaking, it is not the stage with largest elevation gain, but there are 3 climbs and they are concentrated in the final part of the stage, as the first of them starts only after almost 150 km of race. Before, there are no climbs but the profile looks rather hilly. And note how long the stage is: slightly over 200 km! A not-in-shape rider will have a hard time.
A bit of information about rankings before this (decisive?) stage :
General time classification
We can note the appearance of Armirail in 6th position, before his likely disappearance tomorrow.
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma
- J. Almeida 🇵🇹 UAE – 50″
- T. Pidcock 🇬🇧 Q36.5 – 56″
- T. Træen 🇳🇴 Bahrain – 1′06″
- F. Gall 🇨🇭 Décathlon – 2′17″
- B. Armirail 🇫🇷 Décathlon – 2′23″
- M. Jorgenson 🇺🇸 Visma – 2′26″
- J. Hindley 🇦🇺 Bora – 2′30″
- G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 2′33″
- G. Pellizzari 🇮🇹 Bora – 2′44″
Points classification
Pedersen finally managed to create a gap with GC guys and sprinters today. The cancellation of the points at finish yesterday helped too, as Vingegaard would have scored 25 or 30 extra points otherwise.
- M. Pedersen 🇩🇰 Lidl-trek – 172 pts
- E. Vernon 🇬🇧 IPT – 111 pts
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 105 pts
- J. Philipsen 🇧🇪 Alpecin – 105 pts
Mountain classification
A very Spanish top-5, a very UAE top-2.
- J. Vine 🇦🇺 UAE – 34 pts
- J. Ayuso 🇪🇸 UAE – 26 pts
- L. Vervaeke 🇧🇪 Soudal-QS – 25 pts
- J. Romo 🇪🇸 Movistar – 20 pts
- J. Nicolau 🇪🇸 Caja Rural – 20 pts
Another Pedersen day, with his passing of a 1st category pass in the tail of a group of 5 who dropped everyone in a breakaway of 24 riders!
Was this the best ever performance of Vinokourov Junior (in the breakaway)?
O’Connor withdrew today.
At least the Pidcock problem seems solved now for UAE. When I saw Q36.5 pacing the peloton in a climb, I thought UAE was making a mistake not to pull harder, but in the end, the final part of the Angliru was enough to create a gap. A significant but not huge gap, though: Pidcock remains on the podium, 1′30″ behind Almeida.
Stage 14: Saturday 6, 13:30–13:50 → 17:15–17:35
Another mountain stage. This one is shorter but chains 2 hard climbs in its final part. A few riders’ legs may still suffer from the Angliru climb the day before.
General time classification after the Angliru
Træen went down but stayed in top-10; Jorgenson and of course Armirail left it. Riccitello and Kuss entered it. Gaps start to be pronounced.
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma
- J. Almeida 🇵🇹 UAE – 46″ (50″)
- T. Pidcock 🇬🇧 Q36.5 – 2′18″ (56″)
- J. Hindley 🇦🇺 Bora – 3′00″ (2′30″)
- F. Gall 🇨🇭 Décathlon – 3′15″ (2′17″)
- G. Pellizzari 🇮🇹 Bora – 4′01″ (2′44″)
- M. Ricitello 🇺🇸 Visma – 4′33″ (3′11″)
- G. Ciccone 🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek – 4′54″ (2′33″)
- T. Træen 🇳🇴 Bahrain – 5′21″ (1′06″)
- S. Kuss 🇺🇸 Visma – 5′26″ (4′50″)
Another day, another UAE victory. 7 victories out of 9 Spanish stages…
Hindley had his team and Pelizarri pull for him. In the end he only arrives 10 seconds before Pidcock, thus stays out of the podium. But how can you expect better when you only attack within the last kilometre?
Stage 15: Sunday 7, 13:05–13:12 → 17:15–17:44
A peculiar stage going from Asturias to Galicia, with a start given in a very long climb (only 5% average, but with one steep part), followed by many small climbs in the first half of the stage, before a quite easier second half.
Will Ivo Oliveira be the UAE winner of the day?
Very impressive by Lil-Trek, everyone could see the plan from the start of the stage, and yet they and Mads Pedersen delivered an outstanding victory.
It’s like with UAE riders: everyone should see the plan unrolling, everyone should see that unless the UAE rider / Pedersen suffers a sudden weakness, he is superior to almost if not all other riders in the breakaway, yet they ride with him without a second thought.
In this case, they rode with Pedersen until the Vine+Vervaecke duo was caught, that is, for over 100 km, well within the last 10 kilometres, and after that a couple of times (Sheffield and probably Bernal too, the Ineos riders) even chased for him when there were attacks in the last miles, though he did most of the chasing himself.
I thought they did ok, they had to catch the two out front to have a little chance themselves, so that part I get. And in the end many people attacked, but Pedersen was just too strong and used some of the attacks as a sort of leadout, especially Frigo’s last attempt.
Stage 12: Thursday 4, 14:00–14:13 → 17:20–17:40
I am not sure how to name this Cantabrian stage. It is a sort of mountain stage without many climbs, but with one early-ish climb and a significant pass 20-25 km from the line, which should open many scenarios. That is, if someone wishes to do something different than wait-and-see one more time.
Unexpected Pedersen Show today again 😀
Since we arrived in Spain, UAE won 5 stages out of 7… 2 times Ayuso, 2 times Vine and 1 Team Time Trial. Even when there is no Pogatchar and their leader hasn’t got the upper hand on GC, they are a pain in the ass.
If you add Visma: since the beginning UAE+Visma won 7 stages out of 11 (64%).
Out of the 4 remaining stages, 2 were won by Philipsen, and the other 2 saw winners from outer space: a Ben Turner who starts a career of sprinter at age 26, and foremost a living-dead Gaudu who beats both Pedersen and Vingegaard on a super fast punchy climb.
Burgos has now lost half of the team, with the withdrawal of Fernandez (he must have been in a breakaway, perhaps in Italy, I remember his first name ‘Sinuhé’ as I had never met it before).
Agreed, UAE are really annoying and greedy. At least we can often count on them self-sabotaging and with Ayuso on the way out they will have one less star to dominate with.
The other problem is that when it is not UAE, it is Visma. Halfway into the Tour of Britain, Visma already won 3 stages out of 3… There isn’t much left for the other World-Teams. And good luck for the Pro-Teams on a class .Pro race, where there are 9 Word-Teams on the startlist (+ a couple of Pro-Teams which have World-Teams budgets)…
Same thing on the Female side on the ‘Simac’ race (WT): 3 stages out of 3 for the lone Wiebes…
Wiebes has now won 23 sprints in a row. Impressive athletic feat, but not fun to watch.
Now 24 (4/4 stages).
And +1 for UAE too. 6 Spanish stages out of 8.
Luckily, Visma had no true puncher today on the Tour of Britain!
