Stage 16 may have been a difficult day for the Vuelta a España but it was a day of celebration for Ineos Grenadiers, as Egan Bernal triumphed on the shortened finish to claim his first Grand Tour win since his life-threatening 2022 crash, and the team's second in this year's race.
The disruption from pro-Palestine protests meant that Bernal didn't get the finish line photo or podium presentation he might have been dreaming of but Ineos found their own way of celebrating when they got back to the hotel.
Not champagne or burgers but haircuts and fun together. Apparently, the team decided that one stage win would mean one shaved head, so with Egan Bernal adding to Ben Turner's victory on stage 4, it was time for two teammates to brave the shave.
Latest Videos From
The two victims of the clippers – seemingly wielded by Filippo Ganna and his impressive head of curly hair – were Bernal's long-term friend Brandon Rivera, and Michal Kwiatkowski, the rider Turner credited for his wins both in Spain and the Tour de Pologne.
"We made a deal," Kwiatkowski wrote in a Tweet accompanying a photo of the team and the newly-shaven heads. "Stage win = shave head. Egan Bernal delivered, Brandon got picked on Monday, I volunteered somehow."
Turner's win completed Ineos' set of wins across all three Grand Tour wins this year, and Bernal's success marked a final-week salvation of his race, after slipping out of GC contention.
Bernal's victory on the shortened stage 16 was also his first win outside of the national championships since his horrific, life-threatening crash in 2022, with his last win at the Giro d'Italia in 2021.
His first Grand Tour victory in four years may have come in a strange way, but he outsprinted Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) after the pair had worked their way out of the day's breakaway, and into a solid lead in the finale.
"Until the really last moment, we were always on the right foot. Actually when they said the finish line would be changed to eight kilometres [to go] I was already alone with Landa," Bernal explained.
"It was kind of even a funny thing. We were like 'where is the finish line now? What do we do? Okay we just sprint now'. In the whole stage it was good communication between us, we knew we had to work together to make it work, and then we were alone. In the end I think we played the tactics super well. It's a good story to tell to my grandsons."
For Bernal, the significance of the win could not be understated, and was about inspiring much more than just haircuts.
"When I decided to continue racing, it was because I wanted to inspire people, it wasn't because of anything else," he said.
"I just wanted to tell the people that if you really want something, you can do it, and that you have to keep going and try to find motivation. Sometimes it's not easy, sometimes the easier way is to just give up, but when things are super bad, that's where you really have to find some strength to keep going."
With five stages still to go, and Ineos having one of their best seasons so far especially in the Grand Tours, there's nothing to say the team won't add another win to their tally.
Kwiatkowski certainly thinks another stage win is on the cards for the team, saying: "Bob Jungels, get your trimmer ready for today."
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our 2025 Vuelta a España coverage. Our team of journalists are on the ground from the Italian Gran Partida through to Madrid, bringing you breaking news, analysis, and more, from every stage of the Grand Tour as it happens. Find out more.
