{"id":24017,"date":"2025-09-16T02:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T02:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/24017\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T02:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T02:07:08","slug":"vuelta-a-espana-cycling-governing-body-uci-criticises-spanish-government-after-madrid-abandonment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/24017\/","title":{"rendered":"Vuelta a Espana: Cycling governing body UCI criticises Spanish government after Madrid abandonment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cycling’s governing body the UCI has questioned Spain’s ability to safely host major sporting events after the final stage of the Vuelta a Espana was abandoned on Sunday.<\/a><\/p>\n

Riders were stopped with 60km remaining after pro-Palestinian protesters knocked down barriers and occupied the road at several points on the course in central Madrid.<\/p>\n

There were various protests against the Israel-Premier Tech team throughout this year’s Vuelta, prompting some stages to be shortened.<\/p>\n

The UCI accused the Spanish government of “exploiting sport for political purposes” after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said before the final stage began that he admired the protesters.<\/p>\n

“This position is contradictory to the Olympic values of unity, mutual respect, and peace,” the UCI said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“It also calls into question Spain’s ability to host major international sporting events, ensuring that they take place in safe conditions and in accordance with the principles of the Olympic Charter.”<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 police officers were deployed on the streets of the Spanish capital on Sunday, with demonstrations having been expected.<\/p>\n

Riders had crashed as a result of some of the protests during the three-week race, with some saying they were worried for their safety.<\/p>\n

Last week, Israel-Premier Tech began racing in modified jerseys which did not display their team name.<\/p>\n

The UCI praised organisers for reacting “quickly and calmly” and acting with “exemplary professionalism” to ensure the earlier stages of the race were able to continue.<\/p>\n

The protests come in the wake of the Israeli military launching a campaign in Gaza <\/a>in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.<\/p>\n

At least 64,871 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n

Madrid’s mayor, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, said on Sunday that Sanchez’s comments were to blame for causing the stage abandonment, while Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar called Sanchez and his government a “disgrace” to Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cycling’s governing body the UCI has questioned Spain’s ability to safely host major sporting events after the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-24017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}