The Vuelta a España was disrupted again on Tuesday when pro-Palestinian protesters forced organisers to shorten stage 16, with Egan Bernal winning the stage and Jonas Vingegaard retaining the overall lead.
The stage had been scheduled to finish at Castro de Herville, but with protesters blocking the road near the line, race directors moved the finish to the foot of the climb, 8km earlier. Bernal, riding for Ineos Grenadiers, outsprinted Spain's Mikel Landa to the new finish, with Brieuc Rolland of Groupama-FDJ taking third.
The Colombian, a former Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winner, was part of an early 17-man breakaway, and he and Landa had dropped the rest of the group before the announcement. Bernal's victory was his first Vuelta stage win.
Vingegaard, who suffered a puncture and had to take a teammate's bicycle, finished 15th, almost six minutes behind the stage winner. The Dane remains 48 seconds ahead of Portugal's João Almeida in the general classification, with Britain's Tom Pidcock third overall, more than two and a half minutes down.
The protests have been a recurring theme, with stage 11 also having no winner after disruptions, and incidents on stage 10 and the stage-five team time trial. Israel-Premier Tech have removed their name from jerseys, while Javier Romo abandoned on Tuesday after a crash on stage 15 involving a protester.
