La Vuelta cycling race halted as anti-Israel protesters block roads

According to photos from the scene, demonstrators held pro-Gaza banners and Palestinian flags, and chanted anti-Israel slogans.

The race was delayed for only a few minutes, with an official restart at 1.46pm local time.

Some of the riders have condemned the action, with Intermarché-Wanty's Simone Petilli tweeting: “We understand that is not a good situation, but yesterday I crashed because of a protest on the road.

“Please, we are just cyclists and we are doing our job, but if it continues like this our safety is not guaranteed anymore, and we feel in danger. 

"We just want to race! Please."

However, there was a meeting of team managers, representatives from the Professional Cyclists Association and race organisers to discuss call for Israel-Premier Tech to withdraw from the race.

Several teams have reportedly lodged applications calling on the team to pull out due to the security risks caused by the protests, though it has not been specified which did so.

The exact outcome of that meeting also remains unclear, but Israel-Premier Tech’s riders were present on the start line this morning.

Cycling News reports that the meeting resolved to continue with the stage with the caveat that, should the protests turn dangerous, they would stop.

"It was a conversation between us and the organisation. We, the riders, know that in the last few weeks the organisers have been doing as much as they can – so many police, so many," said Lotto’s Elia Viviani.

"Obviously, if there’s a situation that is dangerous for the peloton, we should decide something. But as the organisation has said, we don’t know what’s going to happen, we’ll see how it goes.

"If it’s all peaceful, then there’s no problem, so the race will proceed normally. We are dependent on that. On our part, if it’s peaceful, then we’ll simply restart. If there are falls, danger and so on, then we’ll decide what we do, because they [the organisers] don’t know what’ll happen."