Vuelta a España resumes from stage 12 start as planned, one day on from pro-Palestine protests halting the race in Bilbao

Stage 12 of the Vuelta a España rolled out as planned on Thursday from Laredo, the day after the race was completely neutralised by pro-Palestine protests in Bilbao and GC times were taken 3km from the finish.

After the chaos of the day in the Basque Country, where organisers took the late call 20km out from the line to cancel the planned finish due to multiple demonstrations, there were more Palestine supporters present with flags in the Cantabrian seaside town, but racing got underway as normal around 14:00.

Israel-PremierTech, whose continued participation is the target of the protests, arrived at the start after releasing a statement late last night that confirmed they would not be pulling out of the Vuelta because of the ‘Dangerous precedent’ it would set, but with much less police presence and a calmer atmosphere outside their bus.

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Still, their riders were not presented on stage, as has been the case throughout the Grand Tour. Two people with large Palestine flags behind the stage stood out, as the other teams and riders signed on and spoke to the media, with many expressing a similar viewpoint of just wanting to race their bikes.

Some 100 pro-Palestine supporters were positioned between the sign-on and the start of the race, chanting loudly and repeatedly for over an hour in the street leading towards the starting arch in favour of expulsion of the Israel-Premier Tech squad from the Vuelta as well as against the Israeli government and its actions in Gaza.

Police kept a close watch on both sides of the roads, but unlike in Bilbao, there seemed to be little tension, and there was no move to break through the barriers as riders and team cars passed by.

Oscar Guerrero, Israel-Premier Tech sports director, spoke to a knot of assembled media during the countdown to the start and reiterated the team’s comments from Wednesday night.

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“We have no doubt that we are going to continue in the race. We are a sports team,” he said. “We can understand that there are protests, but they have to be peaceful.”

Guerrero said that during stage 11, he had deliberately taken the team car off route at times on certain climbs because he was scared he would suffer some kind of aggression.

“The riders were generally ‘OK’, with a few insulting gestures on the very last climb, but that was it.”

“The only really hot spot was at the finish, where it was very scary and very dangerous. Guerrero recognised that from the point of certain teams, “I can understand that for them it would certainly be better if we weren’t here.

“But I want them to look at things from our point of view too, both the riders with their contracts and families, and the staff.

“If we quit here, we’d be an objective in every race and have to quit everywhere – and it would, being realistic, be the end of the team. What do you do with its 180 employees?”

Stage 12’s opening phase of racing has continued without interruption, yet, en route to the first categorised climb, with 130km remaining at the time of writing until the riders reach the finish in Los Corrales de Buelna.

Pre-race favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) started the day in Laredo as the race leader in red, with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) currently occupying the podium spots.

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