Vuelta a España stage halted 3km before finish due to protests in Bilbao

As the peloton rode towards the day’s final climb, word filtered through that the race would not reach the planned finish line in Bilbao due to security concerns, with the GC times to be taken with 3km to go.

“Due to some incidents at the finish line, we have decided to take the time at 3 kilometres before the line,” read a statement from the race organisation. “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.”

Television images showed police lining the finishing straight while human rights protestors bearing Palestinian flags chanted from behind the barriers.

Prior to the stage, a meeting was held between the riders and the race organisation to discuss safety concerns after pro-Palestine protestors and police had spilled into the road during stage 10, an incident that caused Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Wanty) to crash.

The Vuelta has been marked by repeated protests at Israel-Premier Tech’s presence in the race. Ahead of the Vuelta, the Izquierda Unida party called on the Spanish government to ask the Vuelta organisation to exclude the team from the race due to Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza.

According to Gaza health authorities and the United Nations, more than 58,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since Israel invaded Gaza in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks, which killed more than 700 people.

Vuelta technical director Kiko García told reporters that the decision to stop the stage early was taken after witnessing the scenes on the Vuelta’s first passage through the finish line on Bilbao’s Gran Vía.

“On the first passage through the finish line, we could see the situation was quite heated and we needed to take a decision quickly,” García said. “There were two options – cancel everything or at least try to give a spectacle to the public who came out to watch cycling. that’s what we did, and we saw immediately that taking the times at 3km to go was one of the possible solutions. We took that decision and, from speaking with them, I think all the teams understood it was the best decision.”

The Basque Country’s historic solidarity with the Palestinian cause meant that the Vuelta’s visit to Bilbao was always liable to spark significant protests against Israel Premier-Tech’s presence, but Wednesday’s demonstration was hardly an isolated incident. 

Human rights protestors attempted to block Israel-Premier Tech during the team time trial in Figueres on stage 5, while demonstrators spilled into the road on stage 10 following clashes with police.

“We’ll have to analyse things, but our objective is to continue,” García said. “I think from tomorrow it should be calmer. We’ll do everything to continue with the race and the spectacle.”