"There was a lot of confusion" - UAE DS looks back at the shortened Vuelta stage 16

The Vuelta a Espana experienced this Tuesday a new episode of interruption, similar to the one that occurred in Bilbao during stage 11. On this occasion, stage 16, which was to end at the Castro de Herville (Galicia), was neutralized 8 kilometers from the finish line due to a protest against the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the presence of the Israel - Premier Tech team in the race.

The organization decided to stop the competition before the start of the final climb. Although Egan Bernal was declared the winner after a breakaway, the situation generated uncertainty in the peloton.

Joxean Matxín, sport director of UAE Team Emirates - XRG, told RTVE how they received the news in the middle of the descent: "It was basically a copy of the Bilbao stage. When we were starting the last descent, about 14 km from the finish, they told us it was going to finish with 8 km to go. We knew it was before the climb, but we were trying to figure out if it was going to be exactly at the 8km banner or if there would be a line at another point, so there was confusion."

The epicenter of the protest was located 3.5 km from the finish, near the team bus area. Demonstrators with Palestinian flags demanded the exclusion of the Israeli team.

Matxin acknowledged that they also didn't have precise information about what was happening at the cut-off point: "We don't know what the situation was like up there, they told us that the road was blocked 3 km from the finish line. I don't know why they didn't stop it at 5 km or 7 km, but that's a decision of the organization and we have to respect it, because we're in the race."

The stage had already been marked by an earlier incident: the police removed a log placed on the road, about 30 km from the finish, in what was considered an act of sabotage. Protests against Israel - Premier Tech have been constant throughout the Vuelta, and are expected to continue, especially in Valladolid, where the individual time trial of stage 18 will be contested.

In strictly sporting terms, João Almeida crossed the finish line next to leader Jonas Vingegaard, remaining 48 seconds behind in the general classification.

UAE called Marc Soler back from the breakaway in the final stretch, although Matxin clarified that the maneuver was not in response to an attack attempt by Almeida: "No, we had Marc in front in case we needed him to stop. He couldn't win the stage because he was two minutes behind the leaders. We only had Felix [Grossschartner] with João at the time, so for safety's sake we called Marc back."