Israel – Premier Tech were targeted by pro-Palestine protesters during today’s team time trial at La Vuelta a España.
While the team do not have significant GC ambitions at the Grand Tour nor were they one of the favourites for the stage win, the protest represents the latest public demonstration against their participation and follows protesters making their thoughts clear at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
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
During the Tour de France, a protest 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
In recent months too the discourse around Israel – Premier Tech has spread from protesters and fans to riders too, former employees Alessandro De Marchi and Jakob Fuglsang both expressing relief at no longer representing the Israel-branded outfit. Ahead of the Vuelta, expected team leader Derek Gee said he had terminated his contract with the team, the Canadian rider stating “certain issues simply made my continuation at the team untenable”.
While the team is not state-owned, and is funded by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams, they have received a “small amount from Israel’s ministry for tourism”. Owner 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.
There have now been pro-Palestine protests at each of this seasons Grand Tours, as well as smaller races such as the Tour Down Under and last year’s Tour of Britain. During today’s fifth stage of La Vuelta, a 24km time trial in Figueres won by UAE Team Emirates, protesters ran into the road ahead of the Israel – Premier Tech riders.
The team 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 displayed banners and Palestinian flags. British riders Jake Stewart and Ethan Vernon are both riding for Israel – Premier Tech at La Vuelta, fellow Brits Chris Froome, Stephen Williams and Joe Blackmore also under contract with the UCI Pro Team.
At the finish, the team were 14th fastest, although as we mentioned earlier, Israel-Premier Tech’s lack of GC or stage ambitions mean the protest is unlikely to have impacted too much on a sporting level for the team.
A spokesperson for the team has this evening told road.cc that they “absolutely condemn the dangerous acts of the protesters on stage 5 of the Vuelta a Espana which not only compromised the safety of our riders, race personnel, but the protesters themselves”.
“Israel – Premier Tech 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 on stage 5 of the Vuelta a Espana which not only compromised the safety of our riders, race personnel, but the protesters themselves,” the spokesperson commented.
“The team continues to work with race organizers and relevant authorities to ensure our safety at the Vuelta a España and all races and ensure any protests do not impact our safety, nor our right to race.”
UAE Team Emirates won the stage, beating Visma-Lease a Bike by eight seconds. Jonas Vingegaard will be in the red jersey tomorrow, although Juan Ayuso and João Almeida have cut the gap to the Dane to eight seconds.
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” while reflecting on his departure after protests at major races this year, including the Tour de France, targeted the team’s presence in the peloton.
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.
Perhaps the most major protest at Israel-Premier Tech’s prominence in the sport came during this year’s Tour de France, an Extinction Rebellion demonstrator wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘Israel out of the Tour’ 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 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”.
“Neutrality does not exist. Not acting in a situation of oppression is like taking the side of the oppressor,” the group said in a statement.
At the Giro too, during the finale of the stage to Naples, pro-Palestine activists ran into the road, on that occasion in front of a charging peloton, and not a two-up sprint. Other protests were seen at the Tour Down Under in Australia at the start of the season.
Last year, Israel–Premier Tech removed mention of Israel from team vehicles for the 2024 season as a “precautionary measure”, replacing explicit mention of Israel with an “IPT monogram, comprised of the Star of David and the Premier Tech ‘PT’, on the team vehicles and other branded elements”.
9 thoughts on “Israel – Premier Tech team time trial interrupted by pro-Palestine protest at Vuelta a España”
Don’t see the mention of
Don’t see the mention of Adams now being the World Jewish Congress of Israel President. Who calls himself the “self-appointed Ambassador-at-Large for the State of Israel.”
The UCI were spineless on this one, didn’t commit to banning them in 2024 when they should have, similar to what happened with Russia and Belarus. They’ve brought this upon themselves and the team by continually supporting their inclusion.
Gkam84 wrote:
He’s not, he’s the President of the Israel Chapter of the World Jewish Congress. Ronald S.Lauder is President of the World Jewish Congress. There is no such organisation as “The World Jewish Congress of Israel”. It’s quite important to get these things right, for reasons that are, hopefully, obvious.
Ah, I think my autocorrecting
Ah, I think my autocorrecting grammer app may have added “of”.
What I wrote was World Jewish Congress, Israel President….. He is indeed the President of the Israeli chapter.
spliter
spliter
Gkam84 wrote:
The UCI is spineless on many things including also allowing uae and bahrain to compete.
Shame. Sport should be free
Shame. Sport should be free of politics.
alexuk wrote:
Quite right – it should just be about money…
That is an aspiration which may be unattainable. Certainly at the higher levels.
Because while athletes practice the sport inevitably regions and *nations* compete (at minimum those athletes need lots of resources – who provides them?).
alexuk wrote:
Sport has never been free of politics, from the original Olympiad onwards. It can’t be if you have teams and/or individuals representing their nation. The “keep politics out of sport” line was used a lot to try to justify not banning apartheid South Africa from international sport. Ultimately a ban was applied and it played a very significant part in finally forcing the end of that abomination. Sport is, for many people, a hugely important part of their lives, you might as well say life should be free of politics.
Rendel Harris]
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