the 2023 road cycling world championships interrupted for almost an hour by demonstrators – Liberation

Protesters blocked the breakaways and the peloton en route to Glasgow, this Sunday, August 6, during the queen event of the World Cycling Championship. Their motives are unknown at this time.

The men’s road race, queen event of the World Cycling Championships, was interrupted by demonstrators this Sunday August 6 after 79 kilometers of racing, in Scotland. According to the images of the realization, the demonstrators, whose demands were not immediately known, blocked the road in the open countryside, forcing the organizers to neutralize the race which had left Edinburgh in the morning. The race was to start again at 12:15 p.m. (1:15 p.m. Paris time) after more than 50 minutes of blocking.

The modus operandi – interrupting a bicycle race – recalls the initiatives of climate activists. If this year’s Tour de France did not experience such a blockage, the event had been disrupted twice in 2022 by Last Renovation activists who had stuck their hands on the ground.

The demonstrators first stopped the breakaway, which had taken more than six minutes in advance, then the peloton, forced to dismount in turn. The stars of the peloton like Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogacar, Wout Van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel or Julian Alaphilippe were reduced to waiting, chatting with each other and even posing for selfies.

Deviations should be taken into account once the race restarts in the direction of Glasgow where the finish will be judged.