CPA President Adam Hansen has called for stages in races to be shortened, or cancelled, in advance in a bid to stop protestors from disrupting them and placing riders in danger.
Hansen's idea comes after the Vuelta a España was seriously affected by massive and multiple pro-Palestine protests, directed against the presence of Israel-Premier Tech in the race.
Many of the protests passed off peacefully and without any incident. But a small minority of demonstrations, including actual blocking of the route, caused serious disruptions and led to five stages having their routes altered. The last stage into Madrid, as well as the winners' final awards ceremony, was cancelled after the pro-Palestine protestors tore down barriers and moved onto the finishing circuit en masse.
However, Hansen's opinion is that had the Vuelta simply pulled the plug on those later stages in advance, it would have removed the protestors' objective - even if it would also have brought the race to a premature end.
"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," Hansen told the BBC.
"By trying every day, we showed there was a platform. [By] 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."
Race organisers of the Vuelta had been adamant that it would reach Madrid despite the ongoing protests, with race boss Javier Guillén saying categorically after stage 16 was partly suspended that "there is no Plan B". Rumours that the race would finish in a motor racing circuit outside Madrid never became more than speculation.
Hansen disagrees, saying, "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. I'm not against protesting, but putting riders in danger is the last thing we want."
Israel-Premier Tech's presence in future races is a subject of fierce ongoing debate. Races like the Giro dell'Emilia in Italy announced that the Israeli team has been removed from their 2025 start list and Barcelona city council has already said it will not accept the team's presence in their 2026 Tour de France Grand Départ.
During the Vuelta a España, two riders - Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Wanty) and Ivan Romeo (Movistar) - were injured, either directly or indirectly, when protestors moved onto or close to the road. Romeo subsequently abandoned as a result of his injuries.
During the third week of the Vuelta, after the partial suspension of stage 16, riders collectively agreed that if there were further incidents, they would simply stop racing. More than 2,000 police were drafted in for the final stage, but with an estimated 100,00 demonstrators lining the route, their options for stopping the disruption, were severely limited.
Meanwhile, according to El País, a Spanish state police commission has proposed that a total of 38 protesters during the Vuelta receive fines of up to €5,000 for their actions during the race. The State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport proposed the fines on the basis of a law dating from 2007 and also proposes that protestors be banned from attending events in sports stadiums for a year.
The Giro dell'Emilia's announcement came hard on the heels of UCI President David Lappartient insisting that they were committed not to pursue any kind of ban on Israeli teams, despite the ongoing, disruptive protests.
Israel-Premier Tech is not a state-sponsored team, but is registered in Israel and features the nation's name in their branding.
In October 2023, a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, sparked Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza. So far, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, at least 64,000 people have been killed by Israeli attacks, with much of Gaza being destroyed.
