"The worst 15 days of my life" - Former Tour de France winner and Vuelta organizer states the race has "been used politically"

Óscar Pereiro, winner of the 2006 Tour de France and part of the protocol and organization team of La Vuelta a España, talked about the difficult situation experienced during the recently finished 2025 edition, the protests, the role of politicians, the words of Borja Iglesias and the possible participation of Spain in the World Championships with Israel in the qualifiers.

These were his words in an interview on El Chiringuito, where he normally talks about soccer:

- "I'm better, but I was really screwed up. It's probably been one of the worst 15 days of my life. So much pressure, so much helplessness... for so long, I've never experienced it before."

- "We have been riddled with insults and there is not a single worker of La Vuelta a España, not a single person who is following the Vuelta a España, who is in favor of what is happening in Gaza. And simply for wanting to do our job and wanting to run a race we looked like the enemy of the same thing we are fighting for, which is for there to be peace in the world."

- We have received, from the moment we entered [Spain from] Figueras to Madrid.... They have called us murderers, genocides and sellouts a meter away from our faces. They have spat on us and thrown urine. They have thrown tacks at the cyclists. They have thrown several cyclists [to the ground].... Everything was distorted, everything was that we were the bad guys in the movie and that we were whitewashing.... Whitewashing who? What could we do? Absolutely nothing."

- "We knew we weren't going to make it."

- "I'm going to talk as far as I can talk. We have felt that we have been left to our own devices. No protection. The UCI was saying absolutely nothing. The IOC was silent."

- "Politicians in this country, former ministers and MPs, encouraging and cutting the road. Trying to throw cyclists off."

- "The Minister of the Interior applauding that the demonstration was peaceful. The President of the Government too. These people have come to see if this was peaceful? I have not seen that it was peaceful.... absolutely nothing!"

- "In Madrid 22 policemen injured and without charging. Because the order was not to charge. And this country is thinking of organizing the [football] World Cup?"

- "La Vuelta a España has been used politically. Nobody has done anything to help us and we've had to run away."

- Since when have the demonstrations in Madrid been peaceful? How can a president of the government say this? The Vuelta a España could not finish in Madrid because someone had it between his eyebrows to boycott it."

- "We'll see if the government has the balls for Spain not to play in the World Cup if Israel is there."