La Vuelta a España resumed this afternoon with stage 16 in Galicia and as expected, protests against Israel did not slow down, despite team Israel Premier Tech removing the country's name from the riders' jerseys. On the contrary: as it happened last week in Bilbao, the end of the stage had to be neutralised, and instead they took the times in the 8 km mark.
Unlike the other occasion, which did not have a stage winner, they did allow that the first rider to cross the improvised finish line won the stage. Colombian rider from Ineos, Egan Bernal, beat home favourite Mikel Landa in the final breakaway and took the bitter victory.
Thousands of protesters disrupted the normal development of the race, not only in the finish line, but in between, completely blocking the road with a log. Riders were given the announcement with just 15 km to the finish line.
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One rider, Javier Romo from Movistar Team, who finished second in stage 12 last Thursday, had to retire due to pain after a fall on Sunday caused by a protester.
The stage had no changes in the General Classification: Jonas Vingegaard from Team Visma leads, Joao Almeida from UAE Emirates chases him 48 seconds behind, and in third place is Tom Pidcock, 2:38 minutes behind.