Vuelta cuts short time trial stage over safety concerns

The Vuelta a Espana has decided to shorten Thursday's individual time trial stage in an effort to avoid further disruptions to the race by pro-Palestinian protesters, organisers said on Wednesday.

Stage 18 in the city of Valladolid had an original route of 27.2km but the riders will now race for 12.2km, and the start and finish of the stage will remain as originally planned.

"With the aim of ensuring greater protection for the stage, the organisers of La Vuelta, in coordination with Valladolid City Council and following consultation with the College of Commissaires, have decided that tomorrow's time trial will be contested over a 12.2 kilometre route," a statement said.

Two stages of the race, Tuesday's stage 16, along with stage 11 came to a premature end after organisers ordered the riders to finish ahead of the scheduled stage end due to protesters on the route.

The Israel-Premier Tech team have been the main focus of the protesters, and their riders were stopped on the road during stage five's team time trial, and the individual time trial was always going to be another possible target for disruption.

Although Israel-Premier Tech have since removed their name from riders' jerseys, there has been no let-up in the protests.

Riders voted before Wednesday's stage to neutralise it if protests caused disruption rather than race to an "undefined finish line", as had happened the previous day.

On Tuesday, race director Javier Guillen said the Vuelta's intention was to finish the race in Madrid on Sunday as planned, adding that no Plan B was in place, but after the shortening of Thursday's stage, this may well change before the weekend.

Spanish authorities said they would deploy an additional 1 500 police officers over the weekend, the largest public security deployment in Madrid since the NATO summit was held in the Spanish capital in 2022, adding they sought to balance safety at the event with citizens' right to protest.

Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard leads the race with a 50-second gap to Portugal's Joao Almeida, with four stages remaining, but the chances of a shake-up in the general classification on Thursday have now been lessened, with the stage more than halved in length.