Stage 11 of the Tour of Spain 2025 was neutralized because proportorous protesters blocked the arrival line.
Photo: EFE – Luis Fabor
Summary and Fast Informame
Listen to this article
Audio generated with Google
Kiko García, technical director of the Tour of Spain, considers that the solution to the conflict that has exploded with the numerous protests regarding the participation of Israel-Premier Tech, who shortened the stage of this Wednesday in Bilbao, happens that this set warns that its presence makes the security of the other competitors difficult.
“That people understand that the situation is not easy and among all we can look for a solution. That for me there is only one, that it would be that the Israel team himself realized that being here does not facilitate the safety of all others,” Garcia said after stage 11, whose end was shortened in 3 kilometers and was left without an official winner.
Today there has been no winner in the Vuelta and have suspended the arrival in Meta in Bilbao. The Basque protesters who protested against Israel's genocide in solidarity with Palestine have achieved it. The Basque people are extraordinary. Huge pic.twitter.com/UbrxZI9IBz
– Fonsi loaiza (@fonsiloaiza) September 3, 2025
Garcia revealed that he has probed the teams, who have thanked and understood that the solution taken in the stage was the best at the risk that was on the arrival line, where several Proportian activists cut a section of the Gran Vía, which endangered the squad.
The technical director of the race pointed out that the organization tried to “find a balance between security and not harm the thousands and thousands of fans who were enjoying the stage.”
“We have seen what has happened in the first step by goal, that the situation was uncontrollable and decided to take the security arch of the three kilometers, without eliminating any part of the stage and simply cancel the finish line because it would not have changed anything from the stage,” he said.
The decision is from Israel-Premier Tech
Kiko García revealed that he spoke with the runners and transmitted the feeling of the organization. “I think it is time to make a decision. Not only us, that as organizers we cannot make any decision because the regulation forces us to be running. Any decision in that sense can lead us to lose our race, the calendar,” he reflected.
“We (the return) cannot make that decision, they have to make them (the team) or someone above,” he insisted.
Kiko García also repaired that “from the beginning of the Vuelta, Israel-Premier Tech has had a special treatment in protection, in the race, in the hotels, around the bus and around the corridors.”
However, he added, the concern is not only “the protection of Israel-Premier Tech, but the protection of all. (…) Now what is at risk in the lives of athletes who are doing their job,” he said.
Garcia, however, wanted to make it clear that he understands “perfectly the protests” because “they are totally understandable.” “And in a personal capacity, as a human being, I think they must be without transferring the line of violence, we already enter something that can be much worse,” he added.
“Right now you have to put everything in the balance and we must assess whether we can put a return like the return to Spain, a three -week race, one of the three big ones, or prefer to continue protecting a team that is putting everything else at risk,” he concluded.
🚴🏻⚽🏀 The latest in sports?: Everything you should know about world sport is in the spectator
