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Friday, 16 February 2024, 22:45
The extremely anticipated Vuelta a Andalucía biking race needed to be decreased to only one single stage after ample police assets could not be assured as a result of ongoing agricultural strike.
Regardless of the tireless efforts of the organising committee to salvage one among Spain’s oldest biking competitions, which needed to be concluded this 12 months to keep away from sanctions, the shortage of Guardia Civil personnel rendered it not possible to proceed safely.
The race, also referred to as the Ruta del Sol, had been attributable to begin on Wednesday (14 February) with a stage from Almuñécar to Cádiar (each Granada). Nonetheless, this, and the second stage between Vélez-Málaga (Malaga) and Alcaudete (Jaén) on Thursday needed to be referred to as off.
It was anticipated that the remaining levels might be rescheduled. Nonetheless, on Friday it was confirmed that Alcaudete can be the only location to witness the 102 cyclists taking part within the 2024 version.
A win for Lotto–Dstny
Because the Jaén city hosted the six-kilometre time trial on Friday afternoon, Belgian rider Maxim Van Gils (Lotto–Dstny) clinched the yellow jersey for the overall classification.
Antonio Tiberi (Crew Bahrain Victorious), in the meantime, secured the pink jersey for the mountains classification, Juan Ayuso (UAE Crew Emirates) took the inexperienced jersey for factors classification, and Jefferson Cepeda (Caja Rural–Seguros RGA) claimed the blue jersey for the sprints classification.
Having solely managed to host one stage out of 5, the organisers expressed their dismay and unhappiness on the flip of occasions, which they described as “a severe blow to the picture of Andalusian and Spanish biking”, to not point out the numerous financial harm to the inland cities that had been attributable to host the varied levels.
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