There was no winner on stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana as race organisers ended Wednesday’s racing three kilometres before the finish line because of pro-Palestinian protesters.<\/p>\n
The announcement about the early finish on what was supposed to be a 157.4km stage in Bilbao came with about 20 kilometres to go.<\/p>\n
“Due to some incidents at the finish line, we have decided to take the time at three kilometres before the line,” said the race director on Radio Vuelta.<\/p>\n
“We won’t have a stage winner. We will give the points for the mountain classification and the intermediate sprint, but not on the finish line.”<\/p>\n
Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock and overall leader Jonas Vingegaard were at the front when the stage was ended.<\/p>\n
The UCI said it “strongly condemns” the “actions that led to the cancellation of the 11th stage”.<\/p>\n
“Major international sporting events embody a spirit of unity and dialogue, transcending differences and divisions,” said a statement from world cycling’s governing body.<\/p>\n
“The UCI reaffirms its commitment to the political neutrality, independence, and autonomy of sport, in accordance with the founding principles of the Olympic movement.”<\/p>\n
Pidcock made a move on the final climb and Vingegaard was the only rider able to go with him.<\/p>\n
“It is hard to describe the disappointment to be honest. I felt like today was my day,” said Pidcock.<\/p>\n
Vingegaard said: “It’s my son’s birthday – he’s one year old today so I wanted to win for him.<\/p>\n
“We worked all day for it and to not get the chance is obviously a big shame.”<\/p>\n
Prior to stage 11, riders had met for a safety meeting, while the Professional Cyclists’ Association had called for better security at an event at which the Israel-Premier Tech team have been targeted.<\/p>\n
On stage five, the Israel-Premier Tech team were held up by protestors holding pro-Palestinian flags and banners.<\/p>\n
Italian rider Simone Petilli also fell on stage 10 when protestors ran on to the road.<\/p>\n
“I understand that is not a good situation, but yesterday I crashed because of a protest on the road,” wrote Petilli on social media.<\/p>\n
“Please, we are just cyclists and we are doing our job, but if it will continue like this our safety is not guaranteed any more, and we feel in danger! We just want to race.”<\/p>\n
Following stage 11, Pidcock said: “Putting us in danger isn’t going to help your cause.”<\/p>\n
The UCI statement added that it “expresses its full solidarity and support to the teams and their staff, as well as to the riders” who they said “must be able to exercise their profession and passion in optimal conditions of safety and serenity”.<\/p>\n
Israel’s military launched a campaign in Gaza 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 63,633 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.<\/p>\n
Stage 12 of 21 on Thursday is scheduled to take place over 144.9km from Laredo to Los Corrales de Buelna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was no winner on stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana as race organisers ended Wednesday’s racing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-112442","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\/112442","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=112442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}