“You can’t pretend nothing is happening” – Kwiatkowski slams the UCI’s handling of the Vuelta a Espana protests

The 2025 Vuelta a España will be remembered less for Jonas Vingegaard’s overall victory and more for the unprecedented disruptions that defined it from the outset. Pro-Palestinian protests forced the shortening of multiple stages, the neutralisation of sprints, and finally, the complete cancellation of the finale in Madrid on Sunday. In the aftermath, voices across the peloton have weighed in on what this means for the sport, including INEOS Grenadiers veteran Michał Kwiatkowski.

The Polish rider took to Twitter to share his frustrations, pointing the finger at cycling’s governing bodies. “If the UCI and the responsible bodies couldn’t make the right decisions early enough, then long-term it’s very bad for cycling that the protesters managed to get what they wanted,” he wrote. For him, the damage went beyond one disrupted race, it set a precedent for future events.

Kwiatkowski warned that cycling had now been exposed as uniquely vulnerable to disruption. “You can’t just pretend nothing is happening. From now on, it’s clear for everyone that a cycling race can be used as an effective stage for protests and next time it will only get worse, because someone allowed it to happen and looked the other way.” His comments reflect a growing concern in the peloton that the openness of the sport, once its greatest strength, has turned into a liability in a tense political climate.

Fans, too, were caught in the middle. Stages like Bilbao’s sprint, the Angliru showdown, and the decisive Madrid finale all ended in confusion, disappointment, or outright abandonment. For Kwiatkowski, this was the greatest loss of all. “It’s a shame for the fans who came here to watch a great event. Personally, I would have preferred to know in advance that the race was cancelled rather than being led to believe everything was going to be fine.”