The local authorities in the city of Valladolid have opted to deploy 450 police officers along the route of Thursday's time trial stage of the Vuelta a España, amid what a local state official said were signs that expected pro-Palestine protests could expand their usual fields of action.
"We have indications that wider actions are being organised beyond the usual placing of [Palestinian] flags outside the route," Jacinto Canales, a state official in Valladolid, told the news agency EFE.
Canales referred to the time trial as a "critical event" and, in an earlier interview, warned that the participants' security "could not be guaranteed 100%," given that protesters could hypothetically move onto the route at any point.
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"You have to bear in mind that this is a 27-kilometre event where we can't have a police officer standing every ten metres," Canales added.
The Vuelta a España has already seen multiple protests against the ongoing presence of the Israel-Premier Tech squad in the race, the most recent being on Sunday's stage 15 when a roadside demonstrator indirectly caused Spanish rider Javier Romo (Movistar) to crash around 60 kilometres from the finish. Police arrested 11 protestors during the stage for various offences.
The Vuelta a España has a permanent police presence accompanying it, comprising 202 officers. 132 from the Guardia Civil force - primarily mobile units responsible for traffic and non-urban duties during stages - while a further 70 from the National Police handle the starts and finishes and the immediate surrounding area.
Additionally, nearly 460 police from local units were deployed on the stages through Asturias in the second week. However, that was for deployment and operations over stage distances of 202 kilometres and 130 kilometres, whereas for next Thursday, the extra police have now been brought in for a time trial stage just 27.2 kilometres long
Taken from a point of view purely of safety, Canales told Europa Press "the problem is not that the race is stopped [by people moving onto the route] but that there is some kind of accident, that a rider or Guardia Civil motorbike rider or organisation vehicle crashes, or that somebody who moves onto the route gets run over by a vehicle."
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