The Vuelta’s race director Javier Guillén has also condemned the protest, saying that the race will seek to take action against the demonstrators who blocked the road, and claiming that “when it is protested with violence, it ceases to be a just cause”.
During yesterday’s fifth stage of the Vuelta, a 24km team time trial in Figueres won by UAE Team Emirates, a group of protesters ran onto the road ahead of the Israel-Premier Tech riders.
La Vuelta Spain
Pro-Palestinian activists block yesterday the Israeli cycling team during the time trial stage
Free Palestine 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/S0umanuOIj
— Irlandarra (@aldamu_jo) August 28, 2025
The team, which includes British riders Jake Stewart and Ethan Vernon, slowed to avoid a collision as motorbike outriders tried to move the protesters out the way. Half of the eight-man team came to a complete stop as the protesters chanted and displayed banners and Palestinian flags.
Following the stage, which saw the team recover from the mid-race disruption to place 14th at the finish (after the organisers gave them 15 of those lost seconds back), an Israel-Premier Tech spokesperson told road.cc that the squad “respects everyone’s right to freedom of speech, which includes the right to protest peacefully”.
“But we absolutely condemn the dangerous acts of the protesters… which not only compromised the safety of our riders, race personnel, but the protesters themselves,” the team said.
Israel – Premier Tech team time trial interrupted by pro-Palestine protest at Vuelta a España (credit: TNT Sports)
Yesterday’s protest at the Vuelta is the latest to target Israel-Premier Tech’s involvement at a major bike race and means there has now been pro-Palestine protests at each of this season’s grand tours.
During the Tour de France, one protest – which saw an activist run onto the finishing straight wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with an anti-Israel slogan – accused the race of being “complicit in genocide” and “helping restore the image of the Israeli colonial regime” by allowing Israel-Premier Tech to participate.
Despite its name, the team is not state owned and is instead funded by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams, though they have received some funding from Israel’s ministry for tourism.
Meanwhile, Adams, who attended Donald Trump’s inauguration and encouraged US attacks on Iran in June, has called the team “ambassadors” for Israel and a means of promoting a “more realistic vision” of modern Israel.
Protesta en favor de Palestina en la #VueltaRTVE27a al paso del equipo @IsraelPremTech en la crono por equipos de 24 kilómetros en Figueres.
📺EN DIRECTO @la2_tve y @rtveplay https://t.co/Z2Lhn6fTon pic.twitter.com/TfG00s0FVf
— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) August 27, 2025
However, according to the team’s sports directors, the growing wave of protests against the squad’s involvement in races is beginning to take its toll on the riders.
Speaking to Spanish sports radio programme El Partidazo de COPE, IPT sports director Oscar Guerrero, who was travelling in the team car when Wednesday’s protest took place, said some of the squad’s riders were fearing for their safety and were even considering quitting the Vuelta altogether.
“I was right behind the riders in the team time-trial,” Guerrero told the programme. “We were all very focused from the start. We took the first corner and there were already all the riders lined up at 60, 65kph.
“Thank God we saw them as they came out, and that there was a safe distance to warn them to brake and at least not to have an accident.
“In that sense we were a bit lucky, but of course, three riders were forced to stop, including Matthew Riccitello, who is our leader. We had to wait for him, because it wasn’t just a matter of stopping there. We had to wait one kilometre until the last riders could get back into the group to restart and pick up the pace.”
Israel – Premier Tech team time trial interrupted by pro-Palestine protest at Vuelta a España (credit: TNT Sports)
Reflecting on the team’s reaction to the protest, and the general atmosphere surrounding them at races, Guerrero continued: “The fans insult us constantly. I’m from Navarre, and for example in last year’s Clásica de San Sebastián I had a very bad time because they called me a murderer, spat at me, and kicked the car.
“We have also talked about this with the riders. Many times, when they ride to the pre-race presentation, there are people who insult and spit on them.”
“People have to understand that the rider should not be assaulted,” the sport’s director, who has been with the team since 2017, continued.
“After the team time trial, a rider from our team was crying for half an hour in the hotel room because of the lack of security and helplessness he feels. Despite being 1.9m tall and a man, he could hardly breathe because of the crying and the fear he has because he does not feel safe.
“If it happens again, he doesn’t think he will be able to overcome it and will have to abandon the Vuelta a España. It’s very hard.”
Ethan Vernon and Jake Stewart, Israel-Premier Tech, 2025 Tour of Britain (credit: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com)
Guerrero also confirmed that the team have been afforded extra police protection due to the increased security threat.
“It’s true that we are delighted with the police,” he said. “Before the team time trial, we had a meeting with them, talking about the protocol and how they were going to do it. But we knew this could happen because it is very difficult in such an open circuit to control everything. They were hiding, they showed up at the last second and security couldn’t do much.
“We have a [police] car in the hotel with two members who keep watch during the night. In Italy we also had it, but it is true that this happened even before the war between Israel and Palestine. I think it is a protocol of the governments.
“But it is true that in this Vuelta a España and last year we have been offered this protection and we have been calm.”
Meanwhile, speaking to WielerFlits, Guerrero’s fellow sports director Daryl Impey described the protest as “frustrating”, but praised the riders for how they handled it, while admitting that the demonstrations are starting to become more serious.
“Some riders were quite shaken up after the incident. But I can’t really say much about it other than that we were shocked, but we tried to recover,” the South African said.
“I’m really proud of the guys. It was a tough day, but I’m proud of how the guys dug in as a team today. I don’t know what we can do next, so we’ll have to wait and see.
“We’re used to flags and signs along the side of the course by now. That’s already difficult, but today is the first time you really realise: Wow, this is really close to home.”
And, speaking to Marca, the Vuelta’s race director Javier Guillén condemned the protesters, confirming that the race would seek to take action following the team time trial disruption.
“We are going to file a complaint; we cannot allow what happened. When it is protested with violence, it ceases to be a just cause,” he said.
As noted above, Wednesday’s protest at the Vuelta is the latest in a series of demonstrations seeking to shine the spotlight on Israel-Premier Tech’s continued involvement in the world’s biggest bike races.
Anti-Israel protester runs onto road during sprint finish, 2025 Tour de France, stage 11, Toulouse (credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Perhaps the most high-profile protest at the team’s prominence in the sport came during this year’s Tour de France, where an Extinction Rebellion demonstrator wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘Israel out of the Tour’ ran onto the finishing straight at the end of stage 11 in Toulouse.
The protestor was arrested and will stand trial for endangering the riders, the Tour’s general commissioner Stéphane Boury intercepting them just as Uno-X Mobility’s Jonas Abrahamsen and Jayco-Alula’s Mauro Schmid were sprinting for victory.
Tour de France stage 11 protester (credit: Ryan Mallon)
Claiming responsibility for the act, Extinction Rebellion said the protest was carried out “to denounce the Tour de France’s complicity in the genocide” and accused the race of “helping restore the image of the Israeli colonial regime” by allowing Israel-Premier Tech to participate.
XR Toulouse also criticised the team’s owner Adams, claiming that Israel-Premier Tech was created with the aim of “bleaching the image of the Israeli colonial regime”.
At the Giro in May, during the finale of the stage to Naples, pro-Palestine activists ran onto the road, on that occasion in front of a charging peloton, while other protests were seen at the Tour Down Under in Australia at the start of the season.
Protesters run onto road during stage six, 2025 Giro d’Italia (credit: TNT Sports)
The discontent surrounding the team has also spread recently to its former riders. Last week, Danish pro Jakob Fuglsang, who retired earlier this year after spending the last three and a half years of his career with Israel-Premier Tech, said it was “definitely nicer to ride without an Israel logo than with it”.
And Jayco-AlUla rider Alessandro De Marchi, who represented IPT in 2021 and 2022, similarly told the Observer he was “happy and relieved” not to race for the squad any more, before calling on the UCI to “show that as a cycling world we care about human rights and international law violations”.
“We need to see real action from our governing body to position the cycling world on the right side and to show awareness of what’s going on in Gaza,” he said.