Today news broke that two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard was effectively crashed out while on a training ride while trying to evade a random member of the public, who, if the account of the rider who was chasing him down is to be believed.
“You can be a professional, but you can also be humble. Jonas fell while trying to drop me down the Fuente la Reina trail, and when I stopped to ask how he was, he got angry with me for following him down the hill,” read Fernandez’s caption on Strava.
I’m not surprised Vingegaard was angry. In fact, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t angry, even though he is Danish and by all accounts seems quite mild mannered. If someone tried to chase me down a descent and caused me to crash I’d be livid, and I’m not trying to win the biggest race on the planet.
Sitting on a pros wheel for a bit used to be a thing people would stride into the café and brag about while on a cycling holiday, often without proof, to the admiration of their buddies. Now, when everyone has a camera in their pocket or strapped to their bars, it seems for some riders it’s akin to a Lycra-clad safari, hunting down the Big 5 (Pick your own riders here, to your preferences, but don’t tell me who you’ve compared to a giraffe). It’s dangerous, and I think it’s also quite cringe too.
The danger factor
The fact that Vingegaard was chased down a hill and crashed is probably evidence enough, though I’m sure some of you will be itching to type ‘skill issue’ in the comments. Footage of another amateur riding alongside the Visma squad on a training ride has also bubbled to the surface recently, with the amateur riding on the wrong side of the road, round a blind corner, holding his phone filming. It doesn’t take a genius to see that it’s bad for you and for the team if the worst were to happen.
To take the latest Vingegaard incident as a prime example, even though the amateur isn’t directly wheelsucking just the knowledge that someone unknown is chasing you is sufficient to throw you off your game. It’s distracting, nerve wracking, and frustrating, and clearly enough to top you, quite literally, over the edge.
As amateurs we may think we’re incredible bike handlers, and some of us may be, but generally speaking we don’t have the same skill level as the pros and so riding behind and alongside them (it’s…
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