diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
index 165ae61379..aeced98859 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
@@ -2144,14 +2144,31 @@ impl Timeline {
         debug_assert_current_span_has_tenant_and_timeline_id();
 
         // Regardless of whether we're going to try_freeze_and_flush
-        // or not, stop ingesting any more data.
+        // cancel walreceiver to stop ingesting more data asap.
+        //
+        // Note that we're accepting a race condition here where we may
+        // do the final flush below, before walreceiver observes the
+        // cancellation and exits.
+        // This means we may open a new InMemoryLayer after the final flush below.
+        // Flush loop is also still running for a short while, so, in theory, it
+        // could also make its way into the upload queue.
+        //
+        // If we wait for the shutdown of the walreceiver before moving on to the
+        // flush, then that would be avoided. But we don't do it because the
+        // walreceiver entertains reads internally, which means that it possibly
+        // depends on the download of layers. Layer download is only sensitive to
+        // the cancellation of the entire timeline, so cancelling the walreceiver
+        // will have no effect on the individual get requests.
+        // This would cause problems when there is a lot of ongoing downloads or
+        // there is S3 unavailabilities, i.e. detach, deletion, etc would hang,
+        // and we can't deallocate resources of the timeline, etc.
         let walreceiver = self.walreceiver.lock().unwrap().take();
         tracing::debug!(
             is_some = walreceiver.is_some(),
             "Waiting for WalReceiverManager..."
         );
         if let Some(walreceiver) = walreceiver {
-            walreceiver.shutdown().await;
+            walreceiver.cancel().await;
         }
         // ... and inform any waiters for newer LSNs that there won't be any.
         self.last_record_lsn.shutdown();
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/walreceiver.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/walreceiver.rs
index 633c94a010..3fe6c21a7d 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/walreceiver.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/walreceiver.rs
@@ -63,7 +63,6 @@ pub struct WalReceiver {
     /// All task spawned by [`WalReceiver::start`] and its children are sensitive to this token.
     /// It's a child token of [`Timeline`] so that timeline shutdown can cancel WalReceiver tasks early for `freeze_and_flush=true`.
     cancel: CancellationToken,
-    task: tokio::task::JoinHandle<()>,
 }
 
 impl WalReceiver {
@@ -80,7 +79,7 @@ impl WalReceiver {
         let loop_status = Arc::new(std::sync::RwLock::new(None));
         let manager_status = Arc::clone(&loop_status);
         let cancel = timeline.cancel.child_token();
-        let task = WALRECEIVER_RUNTIME.spawn({
+        let _task = WALRECEIVER_RUNTIME.spawn({
             let cancel = cancel.clone();
             async move {
                 debug_assert_current_span_has_tenant_and_timeline_id();
@@ -121,25 +120,14 @@ impl WalReceiver {
         Self {
             manager_status,
             cancel,
-            task,
         }
     }
 
     #[instrument(skip_all, level = tracing::Level::DEBUG)]
-    pub async fn shutdown(self) {
+    pub async fn cancel(self) {
         debug_assert_current_span_has_tenant_and_timeline_id();
         debug!("cancelling walreceiver tasks");
         self.cancel.cancel();
-        match self.task.await {
-            Ok(()) => debug!("Shutdown success"),
-            Err(je) if je.is_cancelled() => unreachable!("not used"),
-            Err(je) if je.is_panic() => {
-                // already logged by panic hook
-            }
-            Err(je) => {
-                error!("shutdown walreceiver task join error: {je}")
-            }
-        }
     }
 
     pub(crate) fn status(&self) -> Option<ConnectionManagerStatus> {
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/walreceiver/walreceiver_connection.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/walreceiver/walreceiver_connection.rs
index f8b0849c73..f619c69599 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/walreceiver/walreceiver_connection.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/walreceiver/walreceiver_connection.rs
@@ -275,20 +275,12 @@ pub(super) async fn handle_walreceiver_connection(
     let copy_stream = replication_client.copy_both_simple(&query).await?;
     let mut physical_stream = pin!(ReplicationStream::new(copy_stream));
 
-    let walingest_future = WalIngest::new(timeline.as_ref(), startpoint, &ctx);
-    let walingest_res = select! {
-        walingest_res = walingest_future => walingest_res,
-        _ = cancellation.cancelled() => {
-            // We are doing reads in WalIngest::new, and those can hang as they come from the network.
-            // Timeline cancellation hits the walreceiver cancellation token before it hits the timeline global one.
-            debug!("Connection cancelled");
-            return Err(WalReceiverError::Cancelled);
-        },
-    };
-    let mut walingest = walingest_res.map_err(|e| match e.kind {
-        crate::walingest::WalIngestErrorKind::Cancelled => WalReceiverError::Cancelled,
-        _ => WalReceiverError::Other(e.into()),
-    })?;
+    let mut walingest = WalIngest::new(timeline.as_ref(), startpoint, &ctx)
+        .await
+        .map_err(|e| match e.kind {
+            crate::walingest::WalIngestErrorKind::Cancelled => WalReceiverError::Cancelled,
+            _ => WalReceiverError::Other(e.into()),
+        })?;
 
     let (format, compression) = match protocol {
         PostgresClientProtocol::Interpreted {