Stage 11 | Saint-Palais – Urdax | Vuelta a España 2019

The Vuelta a España re-entered Spain after its sojourn in France with a stage in the Basque Country won by a local rider, Mikel Iturria, on a local team, Euskadi-Murias.

Richard Moore and Daniel Friebe discuss the stage and we hear from Damien Howson, who was in the breakaway, as well as one of the revelations of the race, Carl Fredrik Hagen, riding his first Grand Tour and currently sitting sixth overall. There’s also an interview with Lennard Hofstede, a teammate of overall leader Primoz Roglic, about the job of defending the red jersey, and there are the latest instalments of the audio diaries being kept by James Knox and Nick Schultz.

The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science in Sport

Rapha has launched its new custom kit giving you the chance to design your own Rapha kit. Begin your journey now. Choose from the varied set of templates, pick your colours and add your logos. Make your mark with Rapha Custom at https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/custom/

Pédaleur and pédaleuse de charme t-shirts, caps, and jerseys are in stock in all sizes on the Rapha website https://www.rapha.cc/fr/en/stories/the-cycling-podcast-rapha

You can nominate a rider for the Pédaleur de Charme award throughout the Vuelta a España.

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In November, we will be going on a Grand Tour, with live events scheduled in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland. We still have a couple of dates to confirm but the schedule so far will take us to Bristol, Cardiff, Worcester, Dublin, Belfast, London, Edinburgh, Leicester and Manchester. For tickets to any of these shows – or our event in Harrogate during the World Championships – go to https://thecyclingpodcast.com/live-events

Tonight’s episode is sponsored by Roka sunglasses, as worn by Miguel Angel Lopez (and Lionel Birnie). If you would like to get 20% off, go to Roka.com/vuelta

The music in this episode is by Más y Más.