{"id":111621,"date":"2025-09-03T13:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T13:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111621\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T13:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T13:55:08","slug":"if-its-all-peaceful-then-theres-no-problem-riders-meet-with-organisers-and-uci-on-vuelta-a-espana-start-line-over-safety-amid-multiple-pro-palestine-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/111621\/","title":{"rendered":"‘If it’s all peaceful, then there’s no problem’ \u2013 Riders meet with organisers and UCI on Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a start line over safety amid multiple pro-Palestine protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riders at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> met with representatives from the race organisers and UCI at the startline of stage 11<\/a> in Bilbao to discuss the ongoing safety concerns, amid multiple pro-Palestine protests and a crash caused by demonstrators running onto the course the day before<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several senior figures of the peloton and CPA representatives at the Spanish Grand Tour spoke during the meeting, notably Marc Soler<\/a> (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Simone Petilli<\/a> (Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty) \u2013 who crashed on stage 10 due to protests and is one of the CPA reps \u2013 and Elia Viviani<\/a> (Lotto).<\/p>\n

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After the circle of around 20 riders came to a decision, the start in Bilbao was taken, with the unspoken caveat that if protests turned dangerous, riders might have to rethink their decision.<\/p>\n

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“It was a conversation between us and the organisation. We, the riders, know that in the last few weeks the organisers have been doing as much as they can \u2013 so many police, so many,” Viviani told Cyclingnews and The Cycling Podcast.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, if there\u2019s a situation that is dangerous for the peloton, we should decide something. But as the organisation has said, we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen, we\u2019ll see how it goes.<\/p>\n

“If it\u2019s all peaceful, then there\u2019s no problem, so the race will proceed normally. We are dependent on that. On our part, if it\u2019s peaceful, then we\u2019ll simply restart. If there are falls, danger and so on, then we\u2019ll decide what we do, because they [the organisers] don\u2019t know what\u2019ll happen.”<\/p>\n

Stage 11 was almost immediately affected by a protest, with the peloton being stopped in the neutral zone as police moved protesters off the road. Things restarted fairly quickly, and the stage has continued without incident.<\/p>\n

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\"BILBAO,\n<\/p>\n

The peloton stopped only a few kilometres into the neutral zone because of protesters on the road (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Petilli and others spoke out after his crash on Tuesday, with the Italian rider saying “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! We just want to Race! Please,” on his social media.<\/p>\n

Whilst the mood was serious, neither Soler and Viviani seemed angry, with Thierry Diederen speaking as the President of the UCI Commissaires and Vuelta technical director Kiko Garc\u00eda representing the race. Jake Stewart was the Israel-Premier Tech<\/a> rider present at the discussion.<\/p>\n

It was speculated that the meeting was being held to discuss whether Israel-Premier Tech should continue racing at the Vuelta, but Viviani said this was never the case.<\/p>\n

“No, no, not at all on the riders’ part, we\u2019ve never wanted that because we\u2019re 100 per cent not going against our fellow riders,” he said, when asked if the decision was being taken on whether to ban IPT from racing or not.<\/p>\n

Protests against Israel-Premier Tech’s inclusion in the race at the Vuelta have followed on from similar incidents in the Vuelta team time trial<\/a> in Figueres, a stage of the Giro d’Italia in Naples<\/a> and at the Tour de France in Toulouse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel is currently engaged in armed conflict in Gaza, with the United Nations calling for a ceasefire amidst growing concerns over reports of famine in the territory.<\/p>\n

As the protests have continued, Israel-Premier Tech haven’t appeared on the podium throughout the Vuelta at the stage start locations and the riders have largely stayed away from the media, aside from stage runner-ups Ethan Vernon and Marco Frigo. Armed police are semi-permanently standing near the Israel-Premier Tech vehicles at the Vuelta starts and finishes, as they have done at other races like the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our 2025 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a coverage. Our team of journalists are on the ground from the Italian Gran Partida through to Madrid, bringing you breaking news, analysis, and more, from every stage of the Grand Tour as it happens. Find out more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Riders at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a met with representatives from the race organisers and UCI at the startline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-111621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}