The start of stage 11 of the Vuelta a España was delayed Wednesday after pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the course in Bilbao in opposition to the participation of the Israeli cycling team Israel-Premier Tech.
Police cleared the demonstrators, and the race began with a 19-minute delay, organizers said.
Race organizers ordered the race to finish three kilometers from the finish line due to pro-Palestinian protesters causing disruption at the finish in Bilbao.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters in Basque Country in Spain disrupt the start of Vuelta cycling stage 11
(Photo: Screenshot)
"Due to some incidents at the finish line, we have decided to take the time at three kilometres before the line," was the announcement made by the race director on Radio Vuelta.
"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."
The 157.4km stage which began and ended in Bilbao was into the final 20 kilometres when the announcement came, while the main general classification riders were battling it out ahead of the peloton.
It was the latest disruption in a series of protests targeting the Israeli squad. During the opening days of the Grand Tour, protesters ran onto the course and obstructed Israel-Premier Tech riders, and in one incident stopped the entire peloton. The race has now reached Spain’s Basque region, where anti-Israel sentiment is particularly strong.
Nadav Raisberg, 24, from Kibbutz Dafna near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, is the team’s sole Israeli rider in the race. He described the hostility as deeply personal.
“My lowest point came when pro-Palestinians blocked the road for all the riders, and we stood there for long minutes,” Raisberg said. “I felt terrible. Everyone was staring at me in silence. I asked myself: ‘What the hell do they want from me? What do they want from us? We are the ones who had our children and babies murdered on Oct. 7. I’m the one whose parents were evacuated, whose mother used to call me literally crying about how their lives were turned upside down. We have hostages who are forced to dig their own graves.’”
Oscar Guerrero, the Spanish sporting director of Israel Premier Tech, says identifying with the Palestinians is natural for the Basque region.
“This is part of Basque tradition, going back to the violent struggle against Spanish rule,” he said. “For them, identifying with the Palestinians is natural—they see themselves as the weak identifying with the weak."