La Vuelta a España has become a hive for pro Palestine support. Spectators with Palestinian flags are ubiquitous at every stage, to complain about the participance of an Israeli team, Israel-Premier Tech, which is funded by a wealthy Israeli businessman and self-proclaimed "ambassador", with continuous complaints of "sportswashing".
The protests, which are coordinated by the platform for the Sports Boycott of Israel, are asked to be pacifists, but nevertheless have caused an abrupt end to stage 11 of La Vuelta, which has ended without a winner. Instead, La Vuelta took times for all cyclists at a 3km line before the finish line, and then the riders were diverted to a different route where they quickly entered into their buses.
<social>https://x.com/lavuelta/status/1963266004122845293</social>
That's because of the large amount of protesters gathered at the finish line in the centre of Bilbao. The organisation decided that, to ensure safety for riders and spectators, it was better to take this drastic measure. While most protests are pacifists, earlier in today's stage, as well as in stage 5 last week, some activists blocked the road, which naturally poses great danger for riders as well as the protesters. On Tuesday, Simone Petilli from Intermarché-Wanty crashed when protesters invaded the road.
<social>https://x.com/teledeporte/status/1963207093588000785</social>
"Due to some incidents at the finish line, we have decided to take the time at 3 kilometres before the line. We won't have a stage winner. We will give the points for the mountain classification and the intermediate sprint, but not on the finish line", the organisers said.
While there was no winner, there were some "spiritual winners", Jonas Vingegaard and specially Tom Pidcock, which were the first to cross the improvised finish line, with Pidcock making giant steps into the General Classification.
However, there will surely be a lot of meetings now between La Vuelta organisers, teams, riders and the UCI to decide what to do next, as pro-Palestine supporters disrupting the race will likely grow after every race (with ten stages still to come).
Do you think Israel-Premier Tech should be expelled from La Vuelta?