{"id":148872,"date":"2025-09-16T21:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T21:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148872\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T21:05:10","slug":"barcelona-officials-urge-ban-on-israel-premier-tech-from-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148872\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona officials urge ban on Israel-Premier Tech from Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calls are mounting in Barcelona to block Israel-Premier Tech from taking part in the 2026 Tour de France Grand D\u00e9part, as fallout continues from the protests that disrupted the end of this year\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a in Madrid.<\/a><\/p>\n

Barcelona is set to host the Tour\u2019s opening stages on July 4, 2026. City sports councillor David Escud\u00e9 said officials are already examining ways to avoid a repeat of the chaos that marred La Vuelta\u2019s finale \u2014 and that for him, that includes keeping Israeli-flagged teams out.<\/p>\n

On the Tour de France<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the teams that compete under the Israeli flag, in the same way that has happened with Russia, to stop competing with this flag,\u201d Escud\u00e9 said Tuesday on Betev\u00e9\u2019s Bon dia<\/a>. \u201cThis is not only about cycling. There must be restrictions on all international events for teams that participate with the Israeli flag. Sport cannot be used to whitewash what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vuelta\u2019s best young rider to leave Israel-Premier Tech in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Escud\u00e9 also called on the International Olympic Committee and other sports governing bodies \u201cnot to look the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It should be noted that Israel \u2013 Premier Tech is not actually sponsored or aligned with the State of Israel. There are 32 riders on the team and there are only three Israeli riders. The majority are Canadian, American, European or New Zealanders. It is however, co-owned by Israeli-Canadian Sylvan Adams.<\/p>\n

And the UCI<\/p>\n

The latest development comes from a statement by officials in Gran Canaria, who have said they will refuse to host the Vuelta\u2019s 2026 finish if Israel-Premier Tech is involved. It also aligns with the position of the left-wing municipal group Barcelona en Com\u00fa. Its leader, Janet Sanz, said Tuesday, \u201cWe cannot allow the team of a genocidal state to walk through Barcelona. Neither sport nor life is neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any ban would face an immediate obstacle: the UCI controls which teams may compete in sanctioned events, not host cities or race organizers. It mirrors a similar incident in Canada when groups urged Montr\u00e9al Mayor Val\u00e9rie Plante to bar the squad \u2014 an action likely beyond her authority. The UCI has not commented on the statement as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The final stage of the Spanish Grand Tour was cancelled, along with the podium ceremonies, so riders organized their own celebration in a hotel parking lot to mark their once-in-a-lifetime achievement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calls are mounting in Barcelona to block Israel-Premier Tech from taking part in the 2026 Tour de France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,8766,1258,79251,43703,7413,82],"class_list":["post-148872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas","tag-israel-premier-tech","tag-spain","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}