An Israel-Premier Tech sports director has claimed that one of the team’s riders was crying for half an hour and could “hardly breathe” because he “does not feel safe” in the wake of the pro-Palestine protest that briefly disrupted Wednesday’s team time trial at the Vuelta a España.
The Vuelta’s race director Javier Guillén has also condemned the protest, saying that the race will seek to take action against the demonstrators who blocked the road, and claiming that “when it is protested with violence, it ceases to be a just cause”.
During yesterday’s fifth stage of the Vuelta, a 24km team time trial in Figueres won by UAE Team Emirates, a group of protesters ran onto the road ahead of the Israel-Premier Tech riders.
La Vuelta Spain
Pro-Palestinian activists block yesterday the Israeli cycling team during the time trial stage
Free Palestine 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/S0umanuOIj
— Irlandarra (@aldamu_jo) August 28, 2025
The team, which includes British riders Jake Stewart and Ethan Vernon, slowed to avoid a collision as motorbike outriders tried to move the protesters out the way. Half of the eight-man team came to a complete stop as the protesters chanted and displayed banners and Palestinian flags.
Following the stage, which saw the team recover from the mid-race disruption to place 14th at the finish (after the organisers gave them 15 of those lost seconds back), an Israel-Premier Tech spokesperson told road.cc that the squad “respects everyone’s right to freedom of speech, which includes the right to protest peacefully”.
“But we absolutely condemn the dangerous acts of the protesters… which not only compromised the safety of our riders, race personnel, but the protesters themselves,” the team said.
Yesterday’s protest at the Vuelta is the latest to target Israel-Premier Tech’s involvement at a major bike race and means there has now been pro-Palestine protests at each of this season’s grand tours.
During the Tour de France, one protest – which saw an activist run onto the finishing straight wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with an anti-Israel slogan – accused the race of being “complicit in genocide” and “helping restore the image of the Israeli colonial regime” by allowing Israel-Premier Tech to participate.
Despite its name, the team is not state owned and is instead funded by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams, though they have received some funding from Israel’s ministry for tourism.
Meanwhile, Adams, who attended Donald Trump’s inauguration and encouraged US attacks on Iran in June, has called the team “ambassadors” for Israel and a means of promoting a “more realistic vision” of modern Israel.
Protesta en favor de Palestina en la #VueltaRTVE27a al paso del equipo @IsraelPremTech en la crono por equipos de 24 kilómetros en Figueres.
📺EN DIRECTO @la2_tve y @rtveplay https://t.co/Z2Lhn6fTon pic.twitter.com/TfG00s0FVf
— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) August 27, 2025
However, according to the team’s sports directors, the growing wave of protests against the squad’s involvement in races is beginning to take its toll on the riders.
Speaking to Spanish sports radio programme El Partidazo de COPE, IPT sports director Oscar Guerrero, who was travelling in the team car when Wednesday’s protest took place, said some of the squad’s riders were fearing for their safety and were even considering quitting the Vuelta altogether.
“I was right behind the riders in the team time-trial,” Guerrero told the programme. “We were all very focused from the start. We took the first corner and there were already all the riders lined up at 60, 65kph.
“Thank God we saw them as they came out, and that there was a safe distance to warn them to brake and at least not to have an accident.
“In that sense we were a bit lucky, but of course, three riders were forced to stop, including Matthew Riccitello, who is our leader. We had to wait for him, because it wasn’t just a matter of stopping there. We had to wait one kilometre until the last riders could get back into the group to restart and pick up the pace.”
Reflecting on the team’s reaction to the protest, and the general atmosphere surrounding them at races, Guerrero continued: “The fans insult us constantly. I’m from Navarre, and for example in last year’s Clásica de San Sebastián I had a very bad time because they called me a murderer, spat at me, and kicked the car.
“We have also talked about this with the riders. Many times, when they ride to the pre-race presentation, there are people who insult and spit on them.”
“People have to understand that the rider should not be assaulted,” the sport’s director, who has been with the team since 2017, continued.
“After the team time trial, a rider from our team was crying for half an hour in the hotel room because of the lack of security and helplessness he feels. Despite being 1.9m tall and a man, he could hardly breathe because of the crying and the fear he has because he does not feel safe.
“If it happens again, he doesn’t think he will be able to overcome it and will have to abandon the Vuelta a España. It’s very hard.”
Guerrero also confirmed that the team have been afforded extra police protection due to the increased security threat.
“It’s true that we are delighted with the police,” he said. “Before the team time trial, we had a meeting with them, talking about the protocol and how they were going to do it. But we knew this could happen because it is very difficult in such an open circuit to control everything. They were hiding, they showed up at the last second and security couldn’t do much.
“We have a [police] car in the hotel with two members who keep watch during the night. In Italy we also had it, but it is true that this happened even before the war between Israel and Palestine. I think it is a protocol of the governments.
“But it is true that in this Vuelta a España and last year we have been offered this protection and we have been calm.”
Meanwhile, speaking to WielerFlits, Guerrero’s fellow sports director Daryl Impey described the protest as “frustrating”, but praised the riders for how they handled it, while admitting that the demonstrations are starting to become more serious.
“Some riders were quite shaken up after the incident. But I can’t really say much about it other than that we were shocked, but we tried to recover,” the South African said.
“I’m really proud of the guys. It was a tough day, but I’m proud of how the guys dug in as a team today. I don’t know what we can do next, so we’ll have to wait and see.
“We’re used to flags and signs along the side of the course by now. That’s already difficult, but today is the first time you really realise: Wow, this is really close to home.”
And, speaking to Marca, the Vuelta’s race director Javier Guillén condemned the protesters, confirming that the race would seek to take action following the team time trial disruption.
“We are going to file a complaint; we cannot allow what happened. When it is protested with violence, it ceases to be a just cause,” he said.
As noted above, Wednesday’s protest at the Vuelta is the latest in a series of demonstrations seeking to shine the spotlight on Israel-Premier Tech’s continued involvement in the world’s biggest bike races.
Perhaps the most high-profile protest at the team’s prominence in the sport came during this year’s Tour de France, where an Extinction Rebellion demonstrator wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘Israel out of the Tour’ ran onto the finishing straight at the end of stage 11 in Toulouse.
The protestor was arrested and will stand trial for endangering the riders, the Tour’s general commissioner Stéphane Boury intercepting them just as Uno-X Mobility’s Jonas Abrahamsen and Jayco-Alula’s Mauro Schmid were sprinting for victory.
Claiming responsibility for the act, Extinction Rebellion said the protest was carried out “to denounce the Tour de France’s complicity in the genocide” and accused the race of “helping restore the image of the Israeli colonial regime” by allowing Israel-Premier Tech to participate.
XR Toulouse also criticised the team’s owner Adams, claiming that Israel-Premier Tech was created with the aim of “bleaching the image of the Israeli colonial regime”.
At the Giro in May, during the finale of the stage to Naples, pro-Palestine activists ran onto the road, on that occasion in front of a charging peloton, while other protests were seen at the Tour Down Under in Australia at the start of the season.
The discontent surrounding the team has also spread recently to its former riders. Last week, Danish pro Jakob Fuglsang, who retired earlier this year after spending the last three and a half years of his career with Israel-Premier Tech, said it was “definitely nicer to ride without an Israel logo than with it”.
And Jayco-AlUla rider Alessandro De Marchi, who represented IPT in 2021 and 2022, similarly told the Observer he was “happy and relieved” not to race for the squad any more, before calling on the UCI to “show that as a cycling world we care about human rights and international law violations”.
“We need to see real action from our governing body to position the cycling world on the right side and to show awareness of what’s going on in Gaza,” he said.
51 thoughts on ““Fans insult and spit at them”: Israel – Premier Tech manager claims rider “cried for half an hour” after pro-Palestine protest at Vuelta, as race director says “violent” course intrusion “ceases to be a just cause””
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
bobbinogs wrote:
Whatever you think of Israel (and for the record I am as horrified as anyone else at their appalling genocide in Gaza) if a professional cyclist is legitimately plying his trade and is being bullied, threatened and spat on to the extent that it sounds like he’s having a nervous breakdown then that is sad, and I do mind, and other fans of cycling should mind as well. By all means protest against Israel and lobby the UCI to impose the same sanctions on Israeli teams as on Russian ones, but threatening the riders, spitting on them and putting their safety at risk by running in front of them when they are racing simply isn’t acceptable.
Spitting at them? Well we
Spitting at them? Well we only have IPT sports director Oscar Guerrero’s word for that in this story. If true, of course it is wrong.
The footage of this incident in the 6th stage clearly shows police and riders had several hundred metres to stop and that the protesters were very clearly visible throughout. Police riders chose to ride at the protesters, endangering them rather than halt the race.
That may have been an unwelcome and unreasonable disruption to many – but it was the police’s actions which put people at risk.
One of the team’s riders was
One of the team’s riders was crying for half an hour and could “hardly breathe” because he “does not feel safe”
Awww, boohoo, you know what? That rider has a choice: leave and go home. That choice is not afforded in Palestine, where people are just dropped leaflets and expected to move, then bombed anyway, even when they were told it was “safe passage”. So cry me a river, all the way to the sea, because a rider doesn’t feel safe, while promoting the name of a genocidal state across their chest.
I couldn’t give a hoot if it’s “not funded by Israel” as people like to keep saying. Sylvan Adams has constantly said, he funds the team to show Israel’s “good image” around the world and promote the country. They may not be state-funded, but they are Zionist funded, by a mouthpiece who likes to think he’s acting for the state.
As for the whatabout comments against UAE, Bahrain..etc. Yes, they can all be discussed and addressed, but there is currently a direct threat to a nation, people are starving and the world stands by, doing nothing. So in my mind, there is time to do something about the other sportswashing going on, there isn’t time to stand by and do nothing about a genocide.
Lets hope the team get the “welcome” they deserve next week in the Tour of Britain.
Gkam84 wrote:
and that “welcome” would be ??
Something inpolite, non
Something inpolite, non-violent and newsworthy. And those teams sportswashing the abusive regimes of other nations should not be spared similar treatment.
The welcome of boycott and
The welcome of boycott and protest. (Which is a lot more decent than occupation, house demolitions, land theft, apartheid and genocide)
Peaceful protest. What the
Peaceful protest. What the fuck else did you think?
It is not like riders are
It is not like riders are leaving a team that appears to advertise a country that is committing genocide and has their prime minister as wanted by the The Hague for human rights atrocities?
Funny how these human rights
Funny how these human rights protestors are always quick to highlight the perceived actions of those pesky Jews in Israel locked in a existential war for their existence, but seemingly forget to demonstrate against the human rights abuses in the UAE, or Bahrain, or Kazakhstan, all of whom state sponsor teams in the UCI. Not to mention Jayco AlUla sponsored partly by Saudi Arabia. Not once have I seen a demonstrator on a UCI course protesting these states, despite their involvement in pro cycling for decades.
These countries systematically use state apparatus to torture and murder their own citizens, guest workers and people in other countries, and fail to afford females the same human rights as males. And let’s not mention the UCI races taking part in those havens of democracy China, the UAE, Oman and Turkiye. All in the name of sport washing. The hypocrisy is staggering.
darrenleroy wrote:
No Hypocrisy I can see. The Israeli government, as I’m sure you’re aware is carrying out systematic genocide against a nation. No “percieved” about it, unless you’re a spokesmen for the Israeli governemnt, it’s pretty well documented.
There has been plenty of outcry in the past about all aspects of Sport washing, which the Israel Premier Tech team is one of many.
a1white wrote:
A fraction of what has been directed at IPT, which has far less / any connection to the state Government.
If you can’t see the increased ill treatment you are part of the problem.
None of those states
None of those states mentioned above are currently perpetrating genocide. Or have dispossessed a people of their homeland for 77 years.
No connection to the State of Israel? Other than the word ‘Israel’ in the team’s name along with the Star of David symbol as per the Isaeli flag. And the fact it is financially supported by the Israeli state. And owned by an Israeli billionaire with close connections to Israel’s political elite. None aside from that. ..
Crazyhorse wrote:
The bigotry and bias is staggering. Question – do you think there would be the same amount of outrage and protest if UAE were committing genocide? Or Bahrain? Or jina? What would you call the action against the Uyghurs? Is that worth a mention or a protest or some outrage or is it just easier to turn a blind eye to that?
Crazyhorse wrote:
Saudi Arabia is supporting the war against the Houthi Shias in Yemen both financially and militarily, a war in which over 250,000 Yemenis have died and which many organisations class as a genocide. Bahrain continues its persecution of its Shia minority which falls under the UN definition of genocide as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group” (genocide doesn’t, contrary to popular understanding, solely refer to physically killing a group of people, it can also refer to attempts to abolish a people by circumscribing their language, religion, culture etc). UAE has been accused, with good evidence, of funding the RSF in Sudan, a group which has committed massacres and numerous war crimes against the Masalit people of West Darfur, classed by many organisations and the US government as a genocide (130,000+ dead). So of the four states mentioned as team owners, only Kazakhstan is not currently involved in genocidal activities. None of which excuses or ameliorates Israel’s genocide, but equally it must be acknowledged that they are hardly alone in their perpetration of same.
ETA The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was formed in 1932 by Ibn Saud who took over five autonomous regions by force, so that country has indeed “dispossessed a people of their homeland”.
Secret_squirrel wrote:
Some top whataboutery there. And you’re completely right, that UAE and Saudi Arabia are engaged in evil (the long war in Yemen particularly), _completely_ justifies Israel murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians, and starving the remainder. (And Israel has been engaged in genocide non-stop – just in rising and ebbing levels of intensity – since inception; its military is literally the amalgamation of a number of genocidal terrorist groups).
Paul J wrote:
Is it really impossible to discuss this appalling crisis without resorting to talking absolute bollocks? As if Mr.Squirrel said anything of the sort or even that there’s anything in his post that implies he would think anything of the sort. God knows how the whole appalling business is going to be sorted out, if it ever is, but it certainly won’t be helped by flinging around baseless and offensive accusations trying to tell people what they are really thinking rather than what their words actually say.
I’d call it a systematic
I’d call it a systematic attempt to eradicate the heinous jihadist organisation Hamas but with a lot of innocent civilians being killed in the process, which is not unusual in war with the civilian casualty rate arguably less than in other wars despite the extreme difficulties in taking out Hamas embedded in such a dense urban environment. Israel is a small country surrounded by hostiles with a stated aim of the destruction of Israel which sounds genoicidal to me so I’m not surprised they resort to extreme force to strike such enemies. The death toll is tragic but the real villains in this conflict are Hamas and previous Palestinian leaders that have promoted conflict rather than statehood toward a 2 state solution.
I think things were already
I think things were already going wrong by the bronze age. Certainly the Tanakh seems pretty frank about the arguing and killing over whose promised land it was, even then… And (more recently) Islam got its start by some fairly vigorous conquering.
Rounds and rounds of “the other side want to erase us from the face of the earth” and “our brave martyrs will not have died in vain” and “God has commanded that the heathens perish” keep things going since.
Well … if God decreed it (to both sides, now in writing apparently) I certainly wouldn’t want to try to get between them… It’s noisy enough from the sidelines; I wouldn’t wish living in that kind of place on anyone.
Of course – certain countries in Europe and the US have far more recent motivations for picking their favourites. Perhaps guilt about what they set in motion, and/or failed to prevent. And in the case of the US perhaps a rooting for those who are fighting for their independence / their own “space”. (Maybe recalling like their own war of independence, then various other wars of conquest by themselves e.g. “how the West was won”? Including – frankly- genocidal / racist ones *. Though they apparently are quite selective with that esteem…)
* The Kingdoms in the UK and then the United Kingdom haven’t done better – but perhaps – having lost a bit of power but having a fairly stable local polical system – we simply haven’t been motivated or able to do all the “pacification” of those in colonies or local minorities we’d otherwise have done lately?
And the “rapture”
And the “rapture”
ktache wrote:
Blondie. 1981? 82?
Killing people as they queue
Killing people as they queue for food? Killing children as they wait for water? This amongst thousands of other examples cannot be justified as just another consequence of war.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb
‘More than 17,000 children…’
That is ‘staggering’.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/names-of-palestinian-children-to-be-read-from-morning-to-midnight-at-memorial/ar-AA1L2onb
“.. the human rights abuses
“.. the human rights abuses in the UAE, or Bahrain, or Kazakhstan, all of whom state sponsor teams in the UCI. Not to mention Jayco AlUla sponsored partly by Saudi Arabia. Not once have I seen a demonstrator on a UCI course protesting these states, despite their involvement in pro cycling for decades.
These countries sysetmatically use state apparatus to torture and murder their own citizens, guest workers and people in other countries, and fail to afford females the same human rights as males. And let’s not mention the UCI races taking part in those havens of democracy China, the UAE, Oman and Turkiye.”
Yeah, pro cycling teams at this level and the UCI are not looking too good these days.
FWIW I don’t see hypocrisy. I see a cause that stands out due to scale, severity and exposure. When someone protests one cause there can’t be an expectation to protest all others that some whataboutery might link to that cause. That’s not realistic and it’s too easy a point to try to score against them. Criticise protest methods if it’s criminal, yes – but still I might support them based on proportionality and the right to protest. Otherwise.. to be honest criticising protest can align you to a cause you may not want to be on the side of and can get too close to boot-licking for my liking.
james-o wrote:
Why can there not be an expectation to protest all others? Why? Do you inly have enough energy to support one cause at a time? Protest them all if they deserve it.
Are those other genocides you
Are those other genocides you mention being supported and glossed over by Western governments including the UK?
Slartibartfast wrote:
Yes of course. Next stupid question?
Slartibartfast wrote:
Yes.
OK, I’ll modify my words
OK, I’ll modify my words slightly but my point remains – the expectation to protest many or all things loosely related to the one thing you protest at that time is unreasonable and illogical. If I decide to protest one cause my protest is hypocritical if I’m not protesting other things? If I support one thing I have to support all? A protest or a statement stands on its own value.
Another way to look at this here, what links human rights abuse in one country with Israel’s excessive and indescriminate force and war crimes against the Palestinians, cycling teams? That’s a weak link, one that puts the wrong interests at the centre of all this.
Or, how about people are simply adding weight and momentum to a movement that is increasing against Israel’s PM and army? That’s why it’s prominent, as well as the level of anger and horror at what’s happened.
All I can say is, if you don’t support protest that supports the oppressed or you think what-abouts are the way to react to react to those protest, maybe have a think about why. In this case, if it’s because someone is simply pro-Israel they can say so. I respect the right to an opinion and to protest, thankfully we’re all still free to do so.
james-o wrote:
We’ll disagree forever on this matter. You and many others seem to find it acceptable that all of the protests on the road are against IPT and nothing against UAE & Bahrain. I do not.
I just wonder why people find it easier to protest against one team and support the others?
darrenleroy wrote:
What he said.
It seems that regardless of
It seems that regardless of what ‘side’ we take on the horrific situation in Gaza at the moment, between us we’re able to articulate quite a wide range of connections between the sport that brings us all here and some of the grimmest things that are happening to other humans (and that’s before we even start on the appalling environmental impact of some of the big team sponsors). No sport exists entirely away from the realities of the very unequal world we live in, but cycling seems particularly susceptible at the moment to money with some very dark ties. Maybe rather than saying to each other ‘if you care about this why aren’t you also doing something about this?’, most of us (including myself) should probably be asking ourselves why we all aren’t so incredibly horrified, saddened and angered by all of this that we aren’t all out protesting every day.
All within their own borders.
All within their own borders. Israel is attacking foreign country and has been for decades.
Funny how those who try to
Funny how those who try to defend Israel compare Israel to dictatorships, rogue states, mass murderers. They compare their acts to genocides, apartide and mass starvations. Even those who defend Israel compare it to the worst of the worst.
Those poor, poor, riders,
Those poor, poor, riders, forced to ride for a team promoting a genocidal nation. It must be really hard to have no option but to be there, literally no choice in whether or not to ride for them.
I wish protesters would protest in a way which doesn’t affect anyone, perhaps do it in private then upload pictures for anyone who wants to see them or something. It’s so annoying when they disrupt things and make me think about things like genocide.
Decent people boycott Isreal.
Decent people boycott Isreal.
Rome73 wrote:
As my father might have said, “Don’t criticise something you can’t spell.”
mike the bike wrote:
Speling is overrated, communication is about meening. Rise above that pedantry.
roboito wrote:
Yeah – down with pedantrophiles!
Where hwve you been on
Where hwve you been on October 7th, when Hamas was raping, killing all families, newborn babies and exposing corps of killed on pick ups driwing through Gaza. And those gtfckrs were cheering them!
Yes, let’s ignore the decades
Yes, let’s ignore the decades of apartheid, killings of children and oppression before October 7th.
That has all been debunked
That has all been debunked and no evidence has been produced by an independent source.
Also, decades of apartheid, persecution, illegal land grabs happened before october.
I support the protests, but not endangering other people.
Rubbish, even the UN who are
Rubbish, even the UN who are hardly on Israel’s side have confirmed atrocities occurred, the attackers own videos and photos are damming enough.
lycralout wrote:
The UN in fact said that they acknowledged witness reports of sexual violence and mutilations but were unable to verify them primarily due to Israel’s refusal to allow them access to evidence including alleged video evidence, autopsy data and direct witness interviews. The confessions of captured terrorists saying that they were under orders to rape, mutilate and torture as released by the Israelis have been stated by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights Israel as having been extracted under torture. Numerous lurid claims (most of them too revolting to be described in any detail here) made in the aftermath of the attacks have been thoroughly debunked, for example the IDF claimed that forty babies were massacred and hung on washing lines, in fact one died from a bullet wound most likely from crossfire. Dreadful things happened as a result of the Hamas attacks and there’s no excuse of any sort for them, but for most of the claimed atrocities there’s simply no evidence – Israel saying “we have evidence but we’re not showing it to you” is not evidence.
Yes, the truth was always
Yes, the truth was always going to lie between the OTT misinformation claims and that claimed events were IDF lies. I believe independent organisations have acknowledged from the open source evidence that indiscriminate and non-isolated killings of civilians of all ages occurred by various armed militia that constitute war crimes, including indications of rape and mutilation. So it would be incorrect to say these claims have been debunked and I don’t need babies to be killed to call out the events as atrocities. Of course Israel could also be called out for unlawful killings in their response and accused of committing war crimes themselves. Both sides appear intransigent and can be brutal in their actions and it is difficult to see any lasting solution.
lycralout wrote:
There is definitely indisputable evidence of indiscriminate killings of civilians by Hamas (whom, for the record, I regard as a filthy and murderous organisation which should be rigorously excluded from any negotiations for a resolution). The “indications of rape and mutilation” come, as far as I know, from claims by the IDF and other Israeli government sources and for which there is very little substantive evidence; as I said, Israel has refused to allow UN investigators access to anything which could confirm their claims. I’m very willing to say I’m wrong if evidence exists and is released.
Rendel Harris wrote:
No argument about Hamas enacting murderous terrorism – it’s right there in some of the footage of their raid into Israel. (Not that this is the only killing they’ve done…)
But … this is where principled stands start getting confounded of course. Who should be at any negotiations? Who can realistically demonstrate any ability to command support?
The whole point of Israeli government policy for some time (at least as believed to have been steered by Netenyahu) seems to have been “divide and let them fight each other, with occasional ‘pacification’ actions where needed” where the Palestinians are concerned. The point being to ensure everyone could see that a basic precondition for a Palestinian state simply couldn’t be achieved.
This leaves the choice is between extremist (main ones in Gaza) or rather weak and corrupt groups (Fatah under current leadership in the West Bank). (I know I’m not doing justice to a very complex situation here…)
Who by the way hate each other so much they had a small but brutal civil war in Gaza – which Hamas won.
And of course the Israelis will have to be at any negitiations and one might assume they have rarely been less trusted by the Palestinians.
Thats not true, that is
Thats not true, that is Israeli propaganda.
Did you sign up just in the
Did you sign up just in the hope of spelling lessons?
Funnily enough one set of brutal acts does not justify another as a reaction.
See also – pretty much every action of the Israeli state since it was formed.
In other news, SS soldier
In other news, SS soldier cries for half an hour, after being targeted for his black uniform.
Cyclist all over britain get
Cyclist all over britain get this kind of behaviour from motorists every day; quite often because they don’t like us being on the road. Does anyone think that’s legitimate protest?