Hoole notices the Vuelta protests are becoming more extreme: "You can see the aggression in their eyes"

Egan Bernal ended up winning the fifteenth stage, but his first WorldTour victory since the 2021 Giro d’Italia was overshadowed by the chaotic circumstances. Things also went wrong during stage 11 to Bilbao: demonstrators at the finish made it impossible to declare a winner. The riders are fed up at this point.

Hoole addressed Tuesday's bizarre stage. “I have to say, it’s definitely getting more hostile and more unpleasant,” the Dutchman told NOS. “In the neutralized zone they threw tacks onto the road, so there were a lot of flat tires. Halfway through the stage, a few people tried to run into the peloton. Luckily, the police stopped them in time.”

It’s the second time a Vuelta stage couldn’t be completed. “When we heard that the final climb had been shortened, it didn’t affect me personally, since I wasn’t going to climb it anyway. But it’s definitely getting worse. Soon we won’t be able to hold a normal cycling race anymore. This is already the second time we haven’t been able to complete a stage as planned.”

It gives the Lidl-Trek rider a feeling of helplessness. “It started with people just standing alongside the road with flags, which is fine. That’s their right, of course, to protest. But now it’s becoming more and more hostile and more extreme. We’ve already had a few moments where you’re literally riding through crowds of people, and you can see the aggression in their eyes. Then you start thinking: what can we even do at this point?”

The demonstrators are protesting the genocide in Gaza and believe a team like Israel-Premier Tech has no place in the sport. They point to how Russian teams were banned after the war in Ukraine began. “There’s obviously a team in the race that’s backed by Israel, but for the rest of the peloton, this is becoming very frustrating,” Hoole responded.

The time trial specialist is mainly against how much the demonstrators are interfering with the race. “I’m not necessarily scared, and it’s their right to protest. But it has to be safe and done the right way. I don’t think this is the right way. And I honestly don’t understand why we’re the ones who have to suffer because of it.”