Vuelta a Español: La Vuelta again disrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, Vingegaard the big winner

A disrupted race and exhausted riders. The ^20th stage of the Vuelta, contested on Saturday, September 13, between Robledo de Chavela and Bola del Mundo, resembled previous stages. By winning at the top of a final, infernal climb, Jonas Vingegaard took a big step toward overall victory in the 2025 Vuelta a España.

The Dane took a solo victory, ahead of his American teammate Sepp Kuss ( ^2nd , 11 seconds behind) and the Australian Jai Hindley ( ^3rd , 13 seconds behind). Fifth in the stage, 22 seconds behind, the Portuguese rider Joao Almeida has very little chance of catching Vingegaard in the general classification, where he is now 1 m 16 s behind the leader of the Visma-Lease a Bike team.

Before this outcome, about twenty kilometers from the finish, a group of several dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators appeared on the course in an attempt to stop the riders. The roadway was wide at this intersection between two roads, so the men who had escaped (Spaniard Mikel Landa, Italian Giulio Ciccone, Colombian Egan Bernal, Dutchman Jardi Van der Lee, and Frenchman Bruno Armirail) and the group of favorites, who were following about a minute behind, managed to continue their journey.

This Saturday, the ^20th stage, 164.8 kilometers long, took place with heightened security measures. Four hundred Civil Guard officers were deployed along the route. And there was no public present for the final kilometer, a narrow strip of dirt covered with extremely rough, light-colored concrete.

Joao Almeida went all out to try and drop Jonas Vingegaard on the final climb. But the Dane, initially stuck in his wheel, held on without flinching. Then Australian Jai Hindley, chasing ^third place, took the lead on Bola del Mundo. Briton Tom Pidcock and Sepp Kuss clashed, sometimes in sections with gradients exceeding 20%. Until Vingegaard, ^second in the last Tour de France, launched the decisive attack and cruised to a victory that, barring a huge upset, ensures he'll win the Vuelta on Sunday, where renewed tensions with protesters are possible.

The organizers of the Tour of Spain announced in a statement that they had decided to shorten the final stage between Alalpardo and Madrid by five kilometers, without giving an official reason. This is most likely to limit the impact of further protests.

On Sunday, 1,100 additional police officers will be deployed along the route, the largest deployment of this type since the NATO summit in Madrid in 2022, local authorities said, in order to reconcile "the safety" of the runners and "the legitimate right of every citizen to demonstrate."

The Vuelta 2025 has been disrupted almost daily by pro-Palestinian protests, particularly targeting the Israel-Premier Tech team. These actions, which come amid heightened tensions between Israel and Spain, one of the most critical voices in Europe on the situation in Gaza, have forced organizers to shorten several stages, including Thursday's time trial around Valladolid.