{"id":579073,"date":"2026-04-03T07:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579073\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T07:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:00:08","slug":"if-you-attack-first-they-cant-catch-you-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579073\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIf you attack first, they can\u2019t catch you anymore\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Motorcycles in the peloton have long been a major talking point in professional cycling. Riders can benefit too much from the slipstream of vehicles in front of them, or just as easily be hindered by them at decisive moments. Former pro Jakob Fuglsang<\/a> has now added his voice to that debate in comments to Danish outlet Feltet <\/a>.<\/p>\n

The issue of vehicles either helping or obstructing riders has been around for years. One of the most discussed examples came in the 2023 Amstel Gold Race, when there was a storm of criticism over a car carrying race director Leo van Vliet that stayed in front of Tadej Poga\u010dar for too long, helping the Slovenian stay out of reach of the peloton.<\/p>\n

The same year, at the Tour de France, Poga\u010dar was on the other side of the problem when two motorcycles got in his way as he tried to attack Jonas Vingegaard. In the end, Vingegaard took bonus seconds on the stage after that incident disrupted the Slovenian\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

Read on after the video!<\/p>\n

Fuglsang: \u201cWithout a motorcycle in front, Van der Poel probably wouldn\u2019t have won E3\u201d<\/p>\n

Those are just two examples of the influence vehicles, and motorcycles in particular, can have on a race. Fuglsang says he has been watching the problem unfold for years. \u201cI\u2019ve believed for a long time that the motorcycles are more decisive than many other factors,\u201d he said. \u201cThey help determine whether the rider who gets away actually stays away.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Dane, that depends heavily on how closely a motorcycle stays in front of a rider. \u201cIt\u2019s all about being the first to attack. If you do that, you get the motorcycle with you and they can\u2019t catch you anymore.\u201d Fuglsang even pointed to a very recent example. \u201cWithout a motorcycle in front, Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> probably wouldn\u2019t have won E3.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Fuglsang: \u201cQuick-Step used motorcycles as a tactic in the past\u201dThe influence of TV motorcycles is not just a recent issue. Research from Eindhoven University of Technology<\/a> in 2019 found that when a motorcycle rides 30 metres in front of a rider, that rider can travel as much as 2.6 seconds faster per minute. Over the course of a race, that can absolutely make the difference between winning and losing.<\/p>\n

Fuglsang went a step further, saying teams were well aware of it in the past. \u201cAt Quick-Step, using the motorcycles almost used to be part of the tactic,\u201d he explained. \u201cIn the Belgian classics, it\u2019s all about attacking first, because on those twisting roads it\u2019s hard for motorbikes to get away. And of course they need good TV pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"fuglsang2\"\/Fuglsang points not only at the UCI, but also at the peloton: \u201cWe should make a gentlemen\u2019s agreement\u201d<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old Dane first pointed the finger at the UCI. \u201cThey talk about limiting gears for safety reasons, but that\u2019s not what really makes the difference. It\u2019s the motorcycles,\u201d he said bluntly. Still, Fuglsang also believes riders themselves are part of the equation. \u201cWhen a group is chasing the leaders, a psychological mechanism quickly appears where everyone starts racing after the motorcycle \u2014 a kind of Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s motorbike.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the UCI were to take a first step, Fuglsang says he would also support an agreement within the peloton. \u201cIt will probably never really be possible, but we should agree not to race behind the motorcycles.\u201d At the same time, the Dane, who retired in 2025, knows it is far from an easy problem to solve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Motorcycles in the peloton have long been a major talking point in professional cycling. Riders can benefit too…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,221833,13633,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-579073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-jakob-fuglsang","12":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579073","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=579073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}