Vingegaard closes in on Vuelta title by winning penultimate stage after another anti-Israel protest

BOLA DEL MUNDO, Spain (AP) – Jonas Vingegaard is poised to win the Spanish Vuelta cycling race after increasing his lead on Saturday’s decisive stage, a mountain trek that was briefly disrupted by another anti-Israel protest.

The Vuelta will be Vingegaard’s third Grand Tour title, adding to Dane’s pair of Tour de France titles won in 2022 and 2023.

“I’m very happy I could put the finishing touches on things today,” Vingegaard said. “It’s nice to be able to reward the hard work of my teammates. Not just today, but over the last three weeks they’ve been fantastic.”

Vingegaard won Saturday’s 165-kilometer (102-mile) mountain stage ending atop the beyond-category Bola del Mundo ascent in 3 hours, 56 minutes.

The leader of Visma-Lease a Bike dropped top rival João Almeida and the remainder of the hardiest chasers on the final kilometers of the brutal uphill push with gradients of 20%.

Almeida finished fourth, 22 seconds behind. That meant Vingegaard extended his advantage over Almeida to 1 minute, 16 seconds with only Sunday’s mostly ceremonial ride into Madrid to go.

Race custom at a Grand Tour dictates that no rider will challenge the leader on the final stage.

“I hope to get through tomorrow’s stage without problems and then cross the line in Madrid wearing red,” Vingegaard said.

Several dozen people briefly disrupted Saturday’s stage around 19 kilometers (11.8 miles) from the finish when a crowd rushed onto the road and sat down. Some carried Palestinian flags.

A few people then tried to get in the path of cyclists who sped past, while police managed to keep them back. It took several minutes for all the cyclists and team vehicles to advance.

The race has been impacted by multiple gatherings of people protesting the presence of an Israeli-owned team. Saturday’s was the sixth stage of the last 10 to have been disrupted by protests.

Several people were also waving Palestinian flags with the fans lining the sides of the narrow road of the final ascent, but no one interfered with the riders as the churned slowly upwards to the finish.