{"id":526775,"date":"2026-03-10T12:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526775\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:29:11","slug":"a-bodyguard-for-vingegaard-dane-says-riders-may-need-protection-during-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526775\/","title":{"rendered":"A bodyguard for Vingegaard? Dane says riders may need protection during training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonas Vingegaard says being followed by amateur riders during training is becoming more common \u2013 and can be dangerous.<\/p>\n

On the eve of Paris-Nice, the Dane spoke publicly for the first time about the training crash that briefly disrupted his winter.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard crashed during a training ride in Spain earlier this year after being followed by an amateur cyclist, an incident that later circulated on Strava. According to Vingegaard, the description posted online largely matches what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think the guy who posted it explained it pretty well. That\u2019s basically what happened,\u201d Vingegaard told TV 2 Sport<\/a>. \u201cHe followed me, and then I just went too fast into a corner. That\u2019s something I shouldn\u2019t have done. I crashed, but luckily it wasn\u2019t serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident occurred in January and came shortly before the multiple Grand Tour winner had planned to begin his season at the UAE Tour. After also dealing with a minor illness, his racing debut was pushed back until this week\u2019s Paris-Nice.<\/p>\n

\u2018A random person breathing down your neck?\u2019: Norwegian pro reacts to Vingegaard crash<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Vingegaard said that having the dude there may have influenced his decision in the corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be that he knew who I was, but we don\u2019t know each other. For me it feels a bit intrusive when someone sits on my wheel like that,\u201d he said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t just follow someone down the street when I\u2019m walking. So it feels a bit strange when people do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Visma \u2013 Lease a Bike rider said that he has no issue with fans approaching him for a photo during training rides. Being chased, however, is a different matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason I\u2019m out riding alone. It\u2019s because I want to ride alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Having another rider directly behind him also forces him to change how he rides.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have to think about the person behind me,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I brake suddenly, he might ride straight into me. If I need to clear my nose, I can\u2019t just do it. I constantly have to consider someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t unique to Vingegaard. World champ Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> has previously said riders should be left alone during training, and his team has at times used a motorbike escort during rides in Spain.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard hopes it won\u2019t come to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it keeps getting worse, that might be where things end up \u2014 with a motorbike or some kind of bodyguard,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that would be a shame. We just want to be able to do our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paris\u2013Nice resumes on Tuesday with a TTT. Visma has also been practicing its start for the event. In this team time trial format, squads launch their leader, rather than finishing with the full set of riders as in traditional versions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonas Vingegaard says being followed by amateur riders during training is becoming more common \u2013 and can be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,5900,38821,82,1422,636],"class_list":["post-526775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-rider-safety","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}