Last Updated: 15 mins ago // By Curry Police Team (Humour Pun)

By the time the Vuelta a España was called off 31 miles short of the finish line, a new precedent had been set around Israeli competition in international sports.

Pro-Palestinian protesters who crowded and eventually blocked the route of the Spanish cycling tour to protest the involvement of the Israel Premier Tech team led the race’s organizers to cut multiple stages of the competition short. But they had also achieved something more significant: Israel’s riders had taken the country’s name off their jerseys, and other riders had questioned the country’s presence in the race.

Spanish authorities said more than 100,000 people turned out to protest the final stage of the Vuelta on Sunday, capping three weeks of escalating demonstrations that saw streets lined with Palestinian flags, objects thrown onto the course, and in at least one case protesters forcing riders to stop when they unfurled a banner across the route.

Organizers said the final stage “ended early to ensure the safety of the riders,” according to the Associated Press.

The odds-on favorite, Jonas Vingegaard, won the race, so the protesters likely had no effect on the outcome.

But their presence was nevertheless felt throughout the competition, which is one of three Grand Tours on the international cycling calendar. Vingegaard, after celebrating victory at a makeshift winner’s tent — there was no podium presentation — said, “It’s a pity that such a moment of eternity was taken from us.”

What may linger for the Israeli team is the behavior of their competitors as the protests unfolded: Some bikers reportedly asked the Israeli team to quit the race, and one cycling reporter said other riders derided Israel’s cyclists “for their assumed political views.”

The publicity disaster underscores the depth of Israel’s unpopularity abroad as the war in Gaza approaches the two-year mark amid charges of genocide. And it demonstrates the burden not only on athletes who represent Israel on the international stage, but on the competitions that allow those athletes to compete.

The irony is that only one of Israel Premier Tech’s eight riders at La Vuelta was Israeli.

Wait, Israel has a pro cycling team? 

Yes — well, sort of. Israel Premier Tech is not a state-owned team, though it has received a small amount from the country’s ministry of tourism. Instead, it is bankrolled by Sylvan Adams, a Canadian-Israeli Jewish billionaire and passionate cyclist who wanted to highlight “normal Israel” for an international audience.

Rather than develop an all-Israeli or even all-Jewish squad, Adams and his co-funder, American businessman Ron Baron, did what nearly every other national cycling team does — they recruited top riders from other countries.

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