{"id":162489,"date":"2025-09-26T23:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T23:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/162489\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T23:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T23:07:09","slug":"international-cycling-union-head-rejects-calls-to-ban-israel-premier-tech-from-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/162489\/","title":{"rendered":"International cycling union head rejects calls to ban Israel-Premier Tech from races"},"content":{"rendered":"

KIGALI, Rwanda \u2013 International Cycling Union (UCI) president David Lappartient insisted on Friday that sport cannot be \u201ca tool of sanctions\u201d as calls mount for Israel to be barred from sporting events.<\/p>\n

The Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a grand tour, which ended earlier this month, was massively disrupted by protesters in Spain targeting the Israel-Premier Tech<\/a> team, which, while not representing the country, is owned by a Jewish businessman with close ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Some have called on authorities at the World Championships in Kigali this week and next week\u2019s Europeans in France to bar Israel, because of its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.<\/p>\n

But Lappartient, who will begin a new four-year mandate at the head of the UCI on Saturday, insisted that that was not the right path to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IOC has confirmed our position, which is that sport is not a tool for sanctions but a tool in the service of an ideal, which is to bring people together with the aim of promoting peace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd peace is not brought about through exclusion. Israeli athletes, just like Palestinian athletes and all the world\u2019s athletes, are welcome in our competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

UCI President David Lappartient stand with medal winners on the podium following the team time trial mixed relay cycling event during the UCI 2025 Road World Championships, in Kigali, on September 24, 2025. (Anne-Christine POUJOULAT \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Lappartient also rejected accusations of double standards over the ban of Russian athletes from cycling competitions as Russia continues to wage its bloody war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russian Olympic Committee is suspended today because in its statutes it has incorporated the four Ukrainian oblasts (largely occupied by Russia) and because Russia attacked Ukraine during the Olympic truce that had been unanimously adopted by the United Nations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it is not directly because of the war, otherwise, unfortunately, many more countries would be suspended.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the Israel-PT team, he said that it is \u201cvery clear that it has the right to participate\u201d in races.<\/p>\n

Lappartient resisted pressure from the Spanish government, which openly supported the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests that led to the cancellation of the Vuelta\u2019s final stage and other disruptions, to pull the team out of the Spanish grand tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we start by excluding a team, the next year it will be another, for another reason,\u201d he argued, denouncing the attempt to take the Vuelta \u201chostage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Team Israel Premier Tech\u2019s riders compete during the fifth stage of La Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a cycling tour, a 24.1 km time-trial team race in Figueres, on August 27, 2025. (Josep LAGO \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Several stages of the Vuelta were either shortened or neutralized due to the protests, while two riders crashed because of protesters jumping onto the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is totally unacceptable that protesters jumped onto the route and made riders fall,\u201d said Lappartient.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, the [Spanish] prime minister supported the protesters, and it is not by pouring oil on the fire that we will be able to guarantee the safety of our races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KIGALI, Rwanda \u2013 International Cycling Union (UCI) president David Lappartient insisted on Friday that sport cannot be \u201ca…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-162489","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\/162489","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=162489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}