Vuelta A España: Egan Bernal Wins Stage 16 Curtailed By Pro-palestinian Protesters

Pro-Palestinian protesters proceed to disrupt nan Vuelta a España, pinch nan Colombian Egan Bernal winning shape 16 connected Tuesday which ended 8km earlier nan scheduled decorativeness astatine Castro de Herville, pinch Jonas Vingegaard retaining nan wide lead.

“We person a large protestation astatine 3 kilometres earlier nan line. We will determine nan shape victor and return times astatine 8 kilometres earlier nan line,” nan title board announced connected Radio Vuelta.

The title had entered nan last 15km, pinch Bernal for Ineos Grenadiers and Spain’s Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) retired successful front; nan Colombian won nan sprint to nan caller decorativeness line, pinch Brieuc Rolland, riding for Groupama-FDJ, coming successful third.

A ample group of protesters, waving Palestinian flags, had wholly blocked nan roadworthy connected nan ascent to nan line, and nan decorativeness was moved to nan ft of nan climb, connected nan 167.9km thrust from Poio to Mos.Castro de Herville.

Landa and Bernal were portion of a 17-man breakaway group early successful nan stage, and nan brace had dropped everyone other by nan clip nan announcement came, and Bernal, a erstwhile Tour de France and Giro d’Italia winner, claimed his first Vuelta shape win.

Egan Bernal leads nan breakaway that yet brought him his first Vuelta shape win. Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty Images

The peloton had been contented to let nan riders up ahead to enactment away, but connected nan penultimate climb nan main bunch began to split, pinch nan wide classification contenders forming their ain group. Vingegaard, who suhad a puncture and needed to return 1 of his teammates’ bicycles, came successful 15th, almost six minutes down nan shape winner, pinch nan Dane’s GC rivals alongside him.

The pre-race favourite remains 48 seconds up of Portugal’s João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates XRG) pinch Britain’s Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) 3rd overall, much than 2 and a half minutes down connected nan reddish jersey.

Previously location was no victor connected shape 11, aft organisers ordered nan title to decorativeness 3km from nan statement owed to pro-Palestinian protesters causing disruption astatine nan decorativeness successful Bilbao. There were incidents connected stage 10 which caused a rider to clang and besides during shape five’s squad clip proceedings erstwhile nan Israel-Premier Tech squad were stopped connected nan roadworthy by a group of protesters holding Palestinian flags.

Israel-Premier Tech removed their sanction from riders’ jerseys connected Saturday, but nan protests person continued, pinch Javier Romo (Movistar) crashing connected Sunday’s shape 15. The Spanish rider was not astatine nan commencement of Tuesday’s stage, abandoning nan title owed to injuries picked up successful nan clang aft a man pinch a Palestinian emblem tried to tally up to nan riders and a policeman ran crossed nan roadworthy towards nan spectator.