Stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana was shortened by eight kilometres on Tuesday because of a “big protest” close to the finish, race organisers said, as pro-Palestinian supporters continued to disrupt the race.
Protests have impacted several stages of 21-day race with stage 11 neutralised before the finish in Bilbao last week with no winner declared due to demonstrators disrupting the run-in.
This time there was an improvised finish line quickly set up by race organisers in Mos, Pontevedra, with Egan Bernal crossing it first ahead of Mikel Landa, with Brieuc Rolland third.
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Two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard retains his general classification lead, 48 seconds up on Joao Almeida.
Tuesday’s stage had been due to run 168 kilometres from Poio to Castro de Herville, before the final climb was cut as several hundred Pro-Palestinian protestors gathered en masse around three kilometres before the finish.
Videos on social media showed them attempting to block the road, with Spanish police trying to push them back and dragging some away.
“Complicit… get out of here,” protestors chanted at police, as doubts grew over whether the race will be completed as planned on Sunday in Madrid.
Organisers denied they were thinking of not finishing the race.
“We cannot shorten stages this way, we cannot block cyclists’ passage. It is illegal both criminally and from a sporting standpoint. We are athletes, and sport is meant to bring people together,” said Vuelta director Javier Guillen.
“Obviously, what is happening over there (in Gaza) is terrible. And we are all for peace,” he added.
Spanish cyclist Javier Romo abandoned the race during stage 16 just days after a crash amid a disturbance caused by a pro-Palestinian protestor.
The 26-year-old Movistar rider fell in Sunday’s 15th stage when a protestor emerged from bushes, lunged towards cyclists and slipped, with a police officer running from the other side of the road to try and intercept him.
In the confusion, Romo fell from his bicycle and then appeared to run after the protestor before returning to his bike and finishing the stage.
On Tuesday morning before starting Romo said he had suffered “only bruises” from the incident but was “not feeling very well, mentally or physically”.
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In further disruption, a tree was discovered lying across the road at the foot of the penultimate categorised climb up to Alto de Prado, pictures on social media showed.
Organisers cleared the road long before cyclists arrived to the area.
Refusing to quit
Protestors are mainly targeting the Israel-Premier Tech team, owned by Israeli-Canadian property developer Sylvan Adams.
The team is a private outfit and not a state team but was last week hailed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for continuing to compete at the Vuelta despite the vehement protests.
The governments of Spain and Israel have been increasingly at loggerheads over the war in Gaza, which Madrid has described as a genocide.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive in October 2023 in retaliation for an unprecedented cross-border attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s bombardment has killed at least 64,605 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations says are reliable.
Vuelta organisers put pressure on Israel-Premier Tech to withdraw from the race last week, for safety reasons, but the team refused to depart.
Instead they stripped their team name from the cyclists’ kit, displaying only their logo.
On Wednesday, stage 17 takes riders 143 kilometres from El Barco de Valdeorras to the Alto de El Morredero in Ponferrada.
