Cycling union president suggests cutting short top races to deter protesters

The president of the professional cyclists’ union has suggested curtailing major races, including grand tours, to stop protesters disrupting them and provide a solution to an issue which has dogged cycling this year.

Pro-Palestine demonstrations brought the Vuelta a Espana to its knees, forcing several stages to be shortened or rerouted. Two were outright cancelled, including the final stage into Madrid, when protesters directly clashed with riders attempting to continue their race.

Several riders voiced concerns over the threat to their safety, with two riders brought down in crashes and one, Movistar’s Javier Romo, forced to abandon the race as a result. Some protesters threw thumb-tacks into the road, although fortunately no riders were injured.

The protests were largely targeted at participating team Israel Premier-Tech, which is owned by the Canadian-Israeli billionaire and self-appointed ‘ambassador-at-large’ for Israel, Sylvan Adams. It is not a state-sponsored team, despite having the country in its name, but is registered in Israel.

CPA president Adam Hansen, a two-time grand tour stage winner, told BBC Sport: “Protesters should have the platform taken away from them; if they have no platform they won't go to a race.

“We saw that in Madrid protesters had two hours of live TV, which became just about protesting and not the race. If we had cancelled La Vuelta on a Friday and the last three days were not shot [on TV], the protesters would not have had their platform.

“Cancelling would have shown them there's no point in coming to bike races because we turned the TV off. Yes, it's a huge deal for [Vuelta organisers] Unipublic to do something like that. But we have to make a small sacrifice today for the long-term future of cycling.”

He did not explain how this would stop protesters from simply going to and disrupting the shortened version of a race, nor how cycling’s fragile ecosystem would cope with the financial hit of curtailing races.

Grand tours in particular receive fierce bidding from potential host and finish towns, despite the financial pressures of organising stages and providing security. Shortening races would no doubt have a knock-on effect on towns’ enthusiasm to take part.

Israel Premier-Tech’s title sponsor, Canadian company Premier-Tech, and bike sponsor Factor have both told the team they will cease their involvement with it unless it changes its name.

Race organisers have begun to express discomfort with the team’s involvement in the sport, with Spanish race O Gran Camino announcing it would not invite the team to next year’s edition. The Giro dell’Emilia, an end-of-season Italian race, followed suit shortly after.

A flurry of recent protests across Italy have further raised alarm within the sport, with some politicians adding to the pressure on the team to withdraw on safety grounds. On Thursday the team pulled out of Gran Piemonte, Tre Valli Varesine and Coppa Bernocchi, a trio of upcoming Italian races.