Riders say their safety is being threatened by protesters targeting Israel-Premier Tech at the Vuelta a España.
Riders and race officials hash out safety issues at the start Wednesday. (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Updated September 3, 2025 11:17AM
UPDATE: Race organizers decided to neutralize the stage 11 finish after hundreds of protesters massed at the finish line in Bilbao.
“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.”
That decision came after rising tension at the finish line on Wednesday as a mass of demonstrators waved flags, chanted, and pushed in against police along the race barriers.
Sending there could be trouble if the peloton roared in for the sprint, organizers decided to take the time with 3km to go.
Rather than ride the gauntlet of protesters, riders were redirected toward the team bus parking area.
Only a smattering of fans were spread among the buses lined up in the sprawling parking lot around the San Mames soccer stadium.
Riders arrived to the bus of Israel-Premier Tech, the target of much of the protesters’ anger, and several armed police officers marked the area.
BILBAO, Spain (Velo) — Riders are threatening to stop racing on Wednesday at the Vuelta a España if protesters disrupt the 11th stage across Spain’s Basque Country.
The peloton was in a heated debate with race officials and UCI commissaires at the start of Wednesday’s stage after local left-wing political groups called for protests in the stage in a circuit course in the hills around Bilbao.
Police on Wednesday cleared protesters just before the neutral start of the stage, and so far the stage has been contested without incident.
Riders at the Vuelta are up in arms overnight after protesters disrupted Tuesday’s 10th stage and caused Intermarché rider Simone Petilli to crash.
Sources told Velo there was a heated debate overnight among several riders who even insisted that Israel-Premier Tech should be excluded from the race for the welfare of the entire peloton.
The team, owned by Israeli investor Sylvan Adams, has been the target of ongoing disruptions across the Vuelta by groups directing their protests against the team for the ongoing war in Gaza.
Race organizers promised safe racing conditions during the stage with an increased police presence across the day’s competition.
Israel-Premier Tech riders started Wednesday in a circuit course in and around Bilbao, but did not speak to the media.
‘We just want to race’
Protesters at the neutral start Wednesday. (Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
The peloton is reeling following Tuesday’s stage when an unruly mob of chanting and flag-waving protesters stormed onto the road about halfway through Tuesday’s stage.
Despite efforts by police to stop them, including some police swinging batons at the activists, a few managed to disrupt the stage.
Intermarché racer Petilli crashed in the mayhem, later revealing he struck a police officer who was trying to recover his baton that had fallen onto the roadway.
“I understand that is not a good situation, but yesterday I crashed because of a protest on the road,” Petilli wrote on social media.
“Please, we are just cyclists and we are doing our job, but if it will continue like this our safety is not guaranteed anymore, and we feel in danger!
“Like I said, please let us doing our job, I hurt myself yesterday, because crashing at 50km/h is not nice. We just want to race.”
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