Cycling was licking its wounds on Monday and wondering ‘where next?’ after a chaotic final day of the Vuelta a Espana which saw the concluding stage called off 50 kilometres shy of the capital and the winner crowned in a hotel car park.

The three-week stage race, one of the three Grand Tours at the pinnacle of the sport, was repeatedly disrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators fired up by the presence in the race of the Israel Premier Tech team.

A government spokesman told AFP that 100,000 people had taken part in the final-stage protests, which followed other pro-Palestinian protests during the race.

The stage was stopped early. The winner Jonas Vingegaard had to make do with an improvised podium.

For the International Cycling Union (UCI), the sport’s governing body, and race organis

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