{"id":153648,"date":"2025-09-19T05:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T05:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153648\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T05:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T05:08:13","slug":"as-a-public-figure-its-incredibly-difficult-to-share-an-opinion-on-these-kinds-of-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153648\/","title":{"rendered":"As a public figure, it\u2019s incredibly difficult to share an opinion on these kinds of matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, for the ninth (!) time in the last six years, Richard Plugge<\/a> was able to welcome a grand tour winner to the headquarters of his team Visma <\/a>| Lease a Bike. Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>\u2019s victory in the Vuelta, however, also came with some rough edges in the background of the race, something Plugge discussed in Den Bosch with the media and of course IDLProCycling.com was also there!<\/p>\n

In Spain, Plugge had managed to organize a last-minute celebration for Vingegaard and co. in the parking lot of the team hotel. How did that come about? The idea came from Tom Pidcock\u2019s mother, which set the team boss of Q36.5 into action, who then contacted Plugge. Together with CMO Jasper Saeijs, he quickly made it happen.<\/p>\n

And so the big stars of one of the biggest cycling races of the year ended up standing on coolers, celebrating the fact that they had just emerged as winners of a grand tour. \u201cA special celebration, but one I will never forget,\u201d Vingegaard thanked the leadership of his own team for the innovative way of thinking on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"jonas-vingegaard\"\/Interview with Richard Plugge after Jonas Vingegaard\u2019s Vuelta victory<\/p>\n

Richard, how do you organize a party like that in such a short time, while not everyone is supposed to know about it?
\u201cBy calling the right people and telling them it had to be kept quiet for a while. If it shows up on social media, you never know who may or may not decide to show up. And we had to be sure that everyone could actually make it. Some people were still stuck in the center of Madrid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weren\u2019t you worried it could still get ruined?
\u201cWhen we finally started letting people know it was happening, there were only fifteen minutes to go. At that point, you\u2019d have to move really quickly to still get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much time was there between the call from the Q36.5 team boss and the moment they were actually standing on the podium?
\u201cAbout forty-five minutes, something like that. Or rather: within forty-five minutes everyone was there, and within an hour everything was set up. UAE was the farthest away from the location, and they showed up with the whole team because they\u2019d won the team classification. All in all, it was super fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, Jonas was like: yeah, but I\u2019ve already changed clothes\u2026 but once they saw what was happening, they also thought it was great. We really got to pause together for a moment, and that makes me proud as a team, that we managed to pull it off and make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"jonas-vingegaard\"\/<\/p>\n

In a sport where all teams are always battling each other.
\u201cOf course, I know all those guys well. Mauro Gianetti from UAE, Luca Guercilena from Lidl\u2013Trek, Kjell Carlstr\u00f6m from Israel\u2013Premier Tech, and Q36.5, though they were of course the ones who called me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did the Vuelta organization also know about it?
\u201cI called them too, because of course we needed the banners, prizes, and jerseys. We needed them as well, and that worked out. They were really stuck in the city center, but still managed to quickly round someone up from somewhere. It was very makeshift and came from a sad circumstance, but at the same time it was really beautiful.<\/p>\n

What I found so great was that everyone wanted to help each other. Hanging up the backdrop, but also things like lighting. Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe suddenly showed up with construction lights, because it was dark. Everyone started pitching in, and that was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all these events, are you worried?
\u201cNo. In general, the protesters demonstrated with respect for the sport. We\u2019ve seen people on the roadside before with their messages. Sport is a big stage, and cycling too, so it attracts attention. But I also believe people\u2019s common sense goes far enough to keep the sport intact and preserve the fun for so many fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"palestina-vuelta-2025\"\/<\/p>\n

But on Sunday you saw a lot of hate?
\u201cIt really culminated into something very big in Madrid. Maybe it could have been handled differently, but in my view there was no noble cause behind it anymore. It was more like: how can we ruin this and break through it. It wasn\u2019t about asking for attention anymore, it was about destroying. I hope, and expect, that this won\u2019t happen very often.\u201d<\/p>\n

So weren\u2019t they just hooligans?
\u201cI find it hard to call it that. But watch out: it was very intense. Riders were attacked, and you think: that\u2019s just a rider? They had just ridden 100 kilometers and then they were attacked and pulled off their bikes. In my opinion, that has nothing to do with the cause you\u2019re supposedly pursuing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you really believe in people\u2019s common sense?
\u201cIn Canada and at other races it wasn\u2019t so bad. I hope that common sense prevails and that everyone just demonstrates along the roadside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is the solution \u2018Israel\u2013Premier Tech must leave\u2019 really that simple?
\u201cA few years ago, we had the Vuelta start in Utrecht, with a team time trial. Back then they tried to disrupt the start of INEOS. I think there can often be a reason for these kinds of things to happen, and it\u2019s up to the UCI to make a ruling on which teams are allowed to participate and which aren\u2019t. And above that, the IOC, when it comes to sport as a whole. I\u2019m not the one who decides who participates.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"richard<\/p>\n

The UCI issued a statement the day after the Vuelta. Have they done enough?
\u201cThey might have been able to give the Vuelta a bit more support, but on the other hand: it\u2019s easy to think that in hindsight. What are you going to do, what are you going to say? The UCI falls under the IOC, and they also have their own guidelines. It\u2019s difficult enough as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t you, as riders and\/or teams, speak out?
\u201cThat\u2019s up to everyone personally. As an individual, it\u2019s incredibly difficult to form an opinion on these kinds of matters, and then also have to share it as a public figure. People already have opinions about us, and then you have to say something about it while in reality you know very little or don\u2019t have the right information.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t just apply to this specific issue. You really need to have studied something thoroughly or have a lot of expertise before you can express an opinion publicly. Especially with topics as sensitive as this, it\u2019s wise to first make sure you\u2019re properly informed before taking a stance. Because the reactions, on both sides, can be extremely fierce.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday, for the ninth (!) time in the last six years, Richard Plugge was able to welcome…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-153648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}