Riders at the Vuelta a España met with representatives from the race organisers and UCI at the startline of stage 11 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.
Several senior figures of the peloton and CPA representatives at the Spanish Grand Tour spoke during the meeting, notably Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Wanty) – who crashed on stage 10 due to protests and is one of the CPA reps – and Elia Viviani (Lotto).
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.
"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 – so many police, so many," Viviani told Cyclingnews and The Cycling Podcast.
"Obviously, if there’s a situation that is dangerous for the peloton, we should decide something. But as the organisation has said, we don’t know what’s going to happen, we’ll see how it goes.
"If it’s all peaceful, then there’s no problem, so the race will proceed normally. We are dependent on that. On our part, if it’s peaceful, then we’ll simply restart. If there are falls, danger and so on, then we’ll decide what we do, because they [the organisers] don’t know what’ll happen."
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.
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.
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 García representing the race. Jake Stewart was the Israel-Premier Tech rider present at the discussion.
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.
"No, no, not at all on the riders' part, we’ve never wanted that because we’re 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.
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 in Figueres, a stage of the Giro d'Italia in Naples and at the Tour de France in Toulouse.
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.
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.
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