Cycling: Vuelta-Klat: No winner after Pro Palestine protests

Propalestinian protests once again caused a scandal and brought the cycling professionals to Bilbao for a scandal. Numerous demonstrators with Palestinian flags in the finish area caused the racing jury to let the eleventh part of the Vuelta run out three kilometers before the finish without a winner. Already in the neutral zone, the driver field had been stopped by demonstrators for a short time before the police were able to clear the road again.

At the time of the race, the Briton Tom Pidcock and the overall first Jonas Vingegaard from Denmark were in the lead with a lead of around ten seconds. The times were assessed at this point for the overall ranking, so that Vingegaard was able to expand his leadership.

A third day victory was not granted Vingegaard due to the events. “It’s a big shame. I could have won the stage. The police did a good job. When we first passed the finish line, we have already seen what’s going on,” said the top favorite at the TV station Eurosport.

Explosive situation on the first destination

After reaching the three-kilometer mark, the cycling professionals rolled towards the destination in Bilbao at a slow speed. A explosive situation had already occurred at the first passage in Bilbao. The security forces could only prevent the demonstrators from getting on the track.

There had already been several events in the past few days. The Israel Prime Minister Tech racing team has been targeted by protest actions. On the fifth stage, demonstrators had stopped the team in team time trial. Protests had also occurred on Tuesday, the Italian Simone Petlli fell.

In view of the continuing incidents, there was also a conversation from the CPA driver’s association with the race management and representatives of the World Association UCI before the eleventh stage.

Drivers discuss with those responsible

“We talked to the organization. We, the drivers, know that the organizers have done everything they could in the past few weeks. There are many police officers in action,” said former Italian European champion Elia Viviani to the portal “Cyclingnews” and added: “If everything goes peaceful, there are no problems, and the race will continue to run. the peloton is dangerous. “

Already at the Tour de France, the Israeli team was occasionally exposed to protests because of the Middle East conflict.