The riders at the Vuelta a España have voted to neutralise the race if there are further protests during today’s stage 17.
Bahrain Victorious’s Jack Haig spoke to the media ahead of today’s stage on behalf of the riders' union, the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA).
"We decided that if there is an incident, we would try to neutralise the race and then that would be it because in the end racing to an undefined finish line is not really fair sport," said Haig, as reported by Cycling News.
"Unfortunately, we're being caught in the middle of something that maybe doesn't even really involve us and at the moment we are kind of just the pawns in a very large chess game that unfortunately is affecting us," the Australian said.
Haig explained that the riders' decision was only for stage 17, and we can expect further daily votes.
Yesterday’s stage 16 saw pro-Palestine demonstrators blocking the course with 3km to go, with race organisers deciding to curtail the stage, which finished under the 8km-to-go banner. Egan Bernal won the stage.
There has been ongoing concern from riders regarding their safety, and several riders have crashed due to the protests.
Regarding stage 16, Haig said: “Yesterday it started to become a little bit uncomfortable because there were some acts to maybe deliberately try and harm the riders by cutting down trees, by putting the thumb [tacks] on the ground, to deliberately light fires.”
Cycling journalist Daniel Friebes wrote on X that there is: “General dismay growing among riders that they are (main?) decision-makers in this process. They have no appetite to race for improvised finish-lines like yesterday’s.”
Haig added that riders want to end the race in Madrid on Sunday, but that it needs to happen in a “fair way where riders are safe”.
The protests at La Vuelta are primarily against the participation of Israel–Premier Tech. The team is co-owned by Canadian–Israeli businessman Sylvan Adams, who has said Israel–Premier Tech’s riders are ambassadors for Israel.
In a bid to aid safety, Israel–Premier Tech removed ‘Israel’ from its kit on Saturday.
The protests at La Vuelta were called for by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). Stephanie Adam, a campaigner for PACBI, told BikeRadar that Israel–Premier Tech’s presence at La Vuelta is “sportswashing pure and simple”.
Adam said that protests at La Vuelta will continue at La Vuelta, and until Israel–Premier Tech is excluded from UCI races and events.
