{"id":327300,"date":"2025-12-04T14:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/327300\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T14:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:15:09","slug":"pro-cyclist-fined-e100-by-spanish-police-for-riding-with-earphones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/327300\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro cyclist fined \u20ac100 by Spanish police for riding with earphones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johannes Staune-Mittet\u2019s preparations for the 2026 road season haven\u2019t gone quite to plan so far, after the Norwegian pro revealed this week that he was issued a \u20ac100 fine by police while training in Alicante \u2013 for using earphones during his ride.<\/p>\n

In the United Kingdom, there is currently no law prohibiting cyclists from wearing headphones while on their bike. However, that is not the case in Spain and the Canary Islands, where riding with earphones is not permitted and could result in a costly \u20ac200 fine.<\/p>\n

And with professionals from across Europe flocking to the Costa Blanca this month for their teams\u2019 annual pre-Christmas training camps, it\u2019s perhaps no surprise that one or two of them, bopping along to their favourite techno track as they finish off one last interval, would be unaware of Spain\u2019s stringent earphone legislation.<\/p>\n

At least that was the case for Staune-Mittet, after the 23-year-old Decathlon rider was issued a \u20ac100 penalty by Spain\u2019s traffic police on Monday, for riding with a pair of Apple AirPods.<\/p>\n

\"JohannesJohannes Staune-Mittet wins stage three of the 2023 Czech Tour (credit: Czech Tour)<\/p>\n

The Norwegian, tipped as one of the sport\u2019s most exciting climbing and stage racing prospects since his win at the 2023 Giro Next Gen, was stopped by police during a 73km ride around Calpe, in Spain\u2019s Alicante province.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old is currently preparing for his second season at French WorldTour squad Decathlon CMA CGM, who he joined at the start of 2025 in a surprise move after four seasons with Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s development and senior teams, making his grand tour debut at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a in August, finishing 42nd overall.<\/p>\n

In a Strava post detailing Monday\u2019s training ride, Staune-Mittet shared a short clip of him holding the penalty notice issued to him by the Spanish authorities for \u201cdriving while using headphones or earphones connected to devices that receive or play sound\u201d.<\/p>\n

Failing to abide by this rule, which applies to both motorists and cyclists, could result in a \u20ac200 fine, according to Spain\u2019s Reglamento General de Circulacion, though by paying early Staune-Mittet was able to avoid this higher penalty, instead coughing up \u20ac100.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interestingly, while the notice handed to Staune-Mittet takes note of the bike he was riding, a Van Rysel, under \u2018vehicle class\u2019 it is simply designated as \u2018other\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuess it is better to buy a pair of those ugly out-of-ear headphones than to get fined for AirPods every day,\u201d the 23-year-old joked in his Strava caption.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Wearing earphones while cycling \u2014 is it allowed? What does the Highway Code say?<\/a><\/p>\n

The debate surrounding the use of earphones while cycling is a long running one, especially in the UK, where the practice is still legally permitted.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, the discussion was reignited by, naturally, Jeremy Vine, after the broadcaster posted a video on social media of a crash caused by a submerged pothole as he cycled through London<\/a>. The pedalling presenter lost an earphone in the fall, returning to pick it up off the ground shortly after, the footage sparking numerous replies questioning the safety of cycling with earphones in.<\/p>\n

\"CyclistCyclist with earbuds (credit: Simon MacMichael)<\/p>\n

A 2018 Dutch study, published in the Journal of Accident Analysis and Prevention, also found that using headphones \u201cnegatively affects perception of sounds crucial for safe cycling\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, taking into account the influence of confounding variables, no relationship was found between the frequency of listening to music or talking on the phone and the frequency of incidents among teenage cyclists,\u201d the research concluded.<\/p>\n

And wider public opinion appears to be in favour of prohibiting cyclists from wearing earphones while cycling, a 2014 BBC survey finding that nine in ten support a ban<\/a>, the E-Survey of Road Users\u2019 Attitudes (ESRA) putting that figure at two thirds in a more recent survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Cyclist finds he\u2019s been fined \u20ac400 for riding with headphones after having money blocked in bank account, despite French police never sending a penalty notice<\/a><\/p>\n

Staune-Mittet will be relieved, however, to avoid the hefty \u20ac400 penalty dished out last year to a student in France, where cycling with earphones is also banned. The 23-year-old student also found out about his substantial fine the hard way \u2013 by having the money blocked in his bank account, despite never receiving any notice of a fine from the police<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Martin, a student in La Rochelle, was riding his bike in August 2023 when he was stopped by the police. He told France Bleu last year that he wasn\u2019t aware of the law and thought he was being pulled over for something else.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t understand at all why I was getting stopped as I didn’t know the law. I asked them: \u2018Am I going too fast?\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Martin told the officers that he was unaware of the law, introduced in 2015, and took off his headphones immediately. He didn\u2019t think much of it, until seven months later when he found out that \u20ac400 \u2014 which he pointed out is equivalent to two months rent at his university accommodation \u2014 had been blocked in his bank account by the La Rochelle fines office.<\/p>\n

So count yourself lucky there, Johannes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johannes Staune-Mittet\u2019s preparations for the 2026 road season haven\u2019t gone quite to plan so far, after the Norwegian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-327300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327300","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=327300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}