MADRID, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Fillipo Ganna (INEOS-Grenadiers) won a severely reduced time trial in the 19th stage of the Vuelta a Espana cycle race in the city of Valladolid on Thursday.

The race organizers cut the planned length of the stage from just over 27 kilometers down to 12.2 kilometers to try and improve security for the riders in case of further protests by demonstrators opposed to the presence of the Israel-Premier Tech team in the race.

The decision meant it was much more difficult for the overall favorites to produce important time distances between each other than it would have been in the projected longer stage.

Overall leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease-A-Bike) will be grateful the pan-flat time trial was shorter than expected as he ceded 10 seconds to Joao Almeida (UAE-Team Emirates-XRG) on the stage.

Almeida finished third on the day, behind his team-mate Jay Vine, who was just one second behind Ganna's time of 13 minutes, while Vingegaard finished ninth, 18 seconds behind the stage winner to see his overall lead cut to 40 seconds.

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) remains third and was able to extend his lead over fourth place Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) to 39 seconds.

Friday sees a flat stage for the sprinters that in normal circumstances shouldn't affect the overall standings, which means the final winner will almost certainly be decided on Saturday's mountainous stage 20, which has five categorized climbs and finishes on the concrete track to the top of the 2,251-meter Bola del Mundo in the Sierra de Madrid. ■