Protester detained by local police after sitting in front of the speeding peloton, organizers file official complaint after mid-race chaos.
(Photo: Getty Images )
Updated March 25, 2026 12:35PM
A climate protester provoked carnage on Wednesday at the Ronde van Brugge after he sat himself in front of the onrushing peloton.
An individual wearing a t-shirt daubed with the slogan “kids dying by the climate crisis” broke onto the course and parked up on a narrow cobblestone strip around 30km from the finish of Wednesday’s sprint classic.
He jumped out of the way before the bunch rumbled through, but it didn’t prevent carnage.
Several riders fell, and dozens more were held up as panic rippled through the front of the peloton.
UAE Emirates-XRG sprinter and defending race-champion Juan Molano abandoned after he was among the hardest of the fallers.
Belgian outlets Sporza and Wielerflits report the offender was notorious local activist Wouter Mouton.
Mouton has already climbed the barriers that closed off the final chute of the 2022 Tour of Flanders, defaced Bruges City Hall, and glued himself to a famous painting by Johannes Vermeer at the Mauritshuis museum in the Netherlands.
Mouton has since been detained by local police, who are opening an investigation into whether his presence can be directly linked to the crash.
Iban tranquilos en el adoquín cuando se vio a un Decathlon haciendo cross por la hierba y una caída detrás de él, con muchos corredores caídos en la parte delantera. Y Lidl aceleró.
Luego se vio a Molano (en otra diferente) muy enfadado con una ¿moto?
🏁26 km #RondeVanBrugge pic.twitter.com/1uWXb44QJb
— Top Ciclista (@TopCiclista) March 25, 2026
Ronde van Brugge organizers press action: ‘He put riders in serious danger’
Molano’s UAE Emirates sport director Fabio Baldato explained after the race Wednesday that the crash was caused as much by an official moto attempting to clear the course as by the intruder themself.
“I understand that the motorbike rider wanted to remove the activist, but he stopped on a cobblestone section that is only two meters wide,” Baldato told Sporza. “Molano was surprised by that and fell to the ground.
“It’s hard to accuse anyone,” Baldato continued. “We are therefore not going to file a complaint. But Molano did fall hard on his back and was in a lot of pain.”
Race organizers vowed to press action nonetheless.
“By sitting in the middle of the road in front of an approaching peloton, he put the riders in serious danger. The fact that the damage from the crash appears to be minor is a stroke of luck, but it does not detract from the ill-considered action, which has no place in a race,” read a statement from officials.
Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) went on to win the final bunch sprint in Bruges.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Max Kanter (Astana-XDS) rounded out the podium.