While Spain mourns following the terror attacks in Catalonia, security is to be in the spotlight as two global sporting events get under way this weekend in La Liga and the Vuelta a Espana cycling race.
After a three-month summer break, La Liga returns with 10 matches over the weekend, including three yesterday.
Thousands of police officers and security personnel are to be mobilized in and around Spanish stadiums.
Photo: EPA
The Vuelta, one of cycling’s three Grand Tours, was to begin in the French city of Nimes yesterday, but the three-week race enters Spain on Tuesday with a stage finishing in Tarragona.
Thousands of spectators generally line the route.
Tarragona is only 20km along the Mediterranean coast from Cambrils, where a car rammed into pedestrians, injuring six civilians and a police officer early on Friday morning.
Photo: EPA
One of the civilians later died.
That incident came just hours after the attack in Barcelona, when a white van sped down the popular Las Ramblas avenue, packed full of tourists on Thursday afternoon, knocking people down and killing 13.
Authorities in Spain have gone ahead with sporting events, despite security fears.
CD Leganes defeated Deportivo Alaves 1-0 to get La Liga under way on Friday, after they paid tribute to the people killed.
A minute of silence was held before the match and was also be observed ahead of all league games this weekend.
The LFP, the body that runs La Liga, confirmed that top-flight matches would go ahead.
“La Liga ... hopes that supporters will be able to enjoy matches normally on the opening match day,” the league said in a mail sent to AFP.
Barcelona said that postponing their game was not considered.
The club were waiting for instructions from authorities about any additional security measures that may be required at the Camp Nou, the biggest soccer ground in Europe with a capacity of 99,354.
“Given the increase in situations of danger, terrorism, the club have already taken measures to reinforce security,” a club spokesperson said. “The rule is to apply the maximum possible measures, and in extraordinary situations like this, apply them much more strictly.”
In Nimes the same level of vigilance was being used by organizers of the Vuelta.
They said on Friday that they were working with authorities to assure the protection of fans and of the event itself.
The first two stages yesterday and today take place in southern France before Monday’s third stage in the Pyrenees concludes in Andorra.
“Extraordinary measures” have been taken by the government of Andorra, with more agents mobilized and border controls reinforced in the tiny principality that borders France and Spain.
The Vuelta, like most cycling races, is by its very nature eminently complex in terms of security with potentially millions of spectators lining roads and large numbers of people gathering in towns where stages begin or end.
For riders, the scenes from Barcelona brought back memories of a similar attack in Nice which killed 86 people during last year’s Tour de France, casting a shadow over that race.
“Just horrific scenes reminiscent of what happened in Nice during the Tour last year. Of course our thoughts and best wishes are with all those affected in this attack,” Britain’s Tour de France champion Chris Froome said.
However, Froome and the rest of the peloton were refusing to let terrorism fears affect their build-up to the Vuelta.
“It’s something you can spend a lot of time thinking about, but it’s something that’s completely outside of your control, you just hope that you wouldn’t see anything like that personally,” Froome said.
Additional reporting by AP
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