UAE Team Emirates-XRG head sports director Joxéan Fernández Matxin has explained that the decision to suspend the last part of stage 16 of the Vuelta a España due to the latest wave of pro-Palestine protests was only made a few kilometres before the relocation of the finish.
For the second time in less than a week after the protests on stage 11 in Bilbao, a Vuelta stage was once again party suspended, with the line relocated eight kilometres from the finish, at the foot of the final climb.
“It was a rerun of the Bilbao stage, we’d just come off the last descent [from the Alto de Prado, the penultimate climb] about 14 kilometres from the finish, [and were told] that we were stopping at eight kilometres,” UAE sports director Joxean Fernández Matxin told Spanish state radio RTVE.
Moving briefly to the sporting aspect, Matxin said that they had sent Marc Soler back from the breakaway to support João Almeida. However, given the way the stage concluded, ultimately, there was no need for him to help the team leader.
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