{"id":421883,"date":"2026-02-12T14:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/421883\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T14:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:14:08","slug":"do-you-wait-two-minutes-or-show-me-your-middle-finger-tadej-pogacar-troubled-by-angry-autograph-seeking-fan-during-break-from-recent-training-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/421883\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Do you wait two minutes or show me your middle finger?’ \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar troubled by angry autograph-seeking fan during break from recent training ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

From roadsides to team hotels to sign-ons, over the years, it’s often been proven that cycling stars and their encounters with fans are not always a match made in heaven. The latest proof of that affected none other than current men’s number 1 racer, Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During a recent training ride, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG<\/a> rider said he was subject to some verbal abuse after asking a fan to wait for a few minutes for an autograph.<\/p>\n

Writing on his Strava account, Poga\u010dar recounted that he had been yelled at by the fan’s irate partner, as well as given a clear physical message about what the fan thought of his request being delayed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAn honest question to all the fans,\u201d Pogacar said in his statement about what had happened during his 132km training ride in Valencia, Spain.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you find me in conversation with someone and you ask me for a photo, I ask you to give me two minutes to finish talk. Do you wait 2 minutes or show me middle finger and take off angry? (And have your partner yelling at me?),\u201d said Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong day ended with losing biggest fan, btw I love you all. Heck I even like the fans that are not my supporters but don\u2019t have the attitude of spoiled teenager,\u201d added Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

The question of fans possibly overstepping the mark when riders are training or off their bikes and in a public setting has become a bigger part of the recent news cycle.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) suffered an accident <\/a>when he was followed by a fan on a climb.<\/p>\n

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Vingegaard has since had to cancel his participation in his opening race of the season, the UAE Tour, citing his injuries and subsequent illness.<\/p>\n

Stopping selfie and autograph requests before they are made also remains an option, of course.<\/p>\n

Last year, after the Tour de France, where he was logically the centre of attention, Poga\u010dar posted a photo of himself and partner Ur\u0161ka \u017digart (AG Insurance-Soudal) during a training ride, with the four-times Tour winner wearing a specially designed maillot with ‘Do not disturb’ and ‘No photography’ motifs.<\/p>\n

After the latest incident, perhaps Poga\u010dar will consider pulling the same jersey out of his wardrobe again for his next training ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From roadsides to team hotels to sign-ons, over the years, it’s often been proven that cycling stars and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-421883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}