Jonas Vingegaard had doubts Vuelta would reach Madrid amid protests

This was a Vuelta a España like no other. No Grand Tour exists in a vacuum, and that was emphatically the case in Spain these past three weeks, as repeated protests against Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza caused modifications to four stages.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) will ride into Madrid on stage 21 as the winner of the Vuelta, but the red jersey confessed on Saturday evening that he had wondered if the race would be able to run its full course.

“After the second rest day, I think everyone was a bit in doubt about whether we could continue or stop the race,” Vingegaard said in his post-stage press conference after sealing overall victory atop Bola del Mundo. “Luckily, we could continue. The organisers and the police did a super job to keep us safe and make us able to race.”

Human rights protests in solidarity with Palestine have been a daily occurrence on the Vuelta. Over 64,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians, have been killed since Israel invaded Gaza almost two years ago in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, which killed more than 1,200 people.

Israel-Premier Tech’s presence in the Vuelta made the race the focus of demonstrations all along its route. The team’s riders were briefly stopped by protestors during the stage 5 team time trial in Figueres and they would later remove the Israel-Premier Tech name from their kit for the remainder of the race.

Members of the Spanish government, the Vuelta organisation and the Vuelta peloton called for Israel-Premier Tech to leave the race amid escalating protests, but team owner Sylvan Adams refused to do so, while the UCI remained largely silent on the issue.

“It’s been a special Vuelta a España,” Vingegaard said. “Of course, we are here to race but there’s been a lot of protests against Israel. I think everyone is within their rights to protest. It’s a bit of a shame it had to happen here, but as I said, people are allowed to do it – and I also understand why they do it.”

During the Vuelta, protests saw stage 11 in Bilbao halted with 3km to go and the finishing climb of Castro de Herville removed from stage 16. Activists spilling onto the road led to crashes on stages 10 and 15, while protestors briefly blocked the break at the foot of the Angliru on stage 13.

The stage 18 time trial in Valladolid was shortened to 12.2km in order to allow for heightened security along the route, while stage 20 to Bola del Mundo saw the race rerouted around the town of Cercedilla and then briefly delayed by a clash between protestors and the Guardia Civil.

“It was a bit of a close call,” Vingegaard said of the incident 16km from the finish of Saturday’s stage. “It was pretty close and luckily, we could just go around it. I think there again the organisers and police did a super good job the police and organisers to keep us safe and make us able to keep riding. We had to do a small detour but for my feeling at least, I felt safe.”

Earlier in the Vuelta, there had been modifications that had a bigger impact on the sporting outcome. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) pulled back ten seconds on Vingegaard in the Valladolid time trial, and the maillot rojo acknowledged on Saturday that his rival would have gained more had the stage been run on its original 27.2km course. 

Vingegaard disagreed, however, when asked if he felt the modifications to key stages had conditioned the outcome of the Vuelta.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “On some stages, especially the time trial, I had an advantage that it was shorter. But on the Bilbao stage I lost some seconds that I probably would have gotten and on the other stage we couldn’t finish, you’d never know if me or Almeida would have been stronger. So with the shorter time trial he lost a bit, but I also lost a bit in Bilbao.”