Video: Novak swats away bottle thief as UAE's Vuelta misfortune continues

Domen Novak had to fend off a spectator attempting to take his bottle while he waited for a fallen teammate on stage 16 of the Vuelta a España.

Ivo Oliveira went down heavily on a kerb in a Spanish town with just under 25 kilometres remaining, at a point when the peloton had almost swept up the day's breakaway and the stress in the bunch was rising. A Spanish fan stepped in to help the Portuguese back to his feet.

More onlookers gathered around the crash. Novak, waiting alongside his teammate before riding on, turned to find a man reaching for his bidon and angrily knocked the arm away. Oliveira remounted and finished the stage.

The incident capped another difficult day for a team whose Vuelta has unravelled since Tadej Pogačar abandoned on stage 8 with concussion, a fractured collarbone and a fractured vertebra. Pablo Torres left the race on stage 9, Jay Vine on stage 12 and Pavel Sivakov on stage 13, cutting the squad in half.

There was one bright spot. Kevin Vermaerke, who broke a rib early in this Vuelta and has been working his way back through the second half of it, spent most of stage 16 at the front of the race and was named the day's most combative rider.

UAE drove the opening phase over the climbing, but the second half of the stage proved too easy to prevent a sprint, and the escape was reeled in.

"Chancing his arm once more, Kevin spent most of stage 16 at the head of the race," the team posted afterwards. "His efforts earned him the day's combativity award."

Novak and Oliveira are two of the four riders UAE have left, with a fifth stage of the race still to survive before Granada on Sunday.