"I thought it might have been Tadej Pogacar" - Pauliena Rooijakkers laughs off controversy after fan in UAE jersey enters course of Liege-Bastogne-Liege Femmes
CyclingMonday, 28 April 2025 at 17:30
Kim Le Court made history on Sunday afternoon at Liege-Bastogne-Liege Femmes 2025, becoming the first African Monument winner in the history of the sport. Alongside Le Court's win though, a big talking point from the race was when a fan in a UAE Team Emirates - XRG jersey rode onto the course, just as the fight for the win was starting to heat up.
As the race entered its final 30 kilometres, television cameras caught a fan wearing the UAE Team Emirates jersey sneaking his bike into the middle of the race. Fenix-Deceuninck's Pauliena Rooijakkers had just attacked, and the Dutch star had a nice gap solo, until she suddenly saw someone appear in her wheel.
"Yes, I saw him. I thought it might have been Tadej Pogacar. But no, it wasn't him," Rooijakkers laughed in a post-race interview with Sporza at the finish, able to see the funny side of the incident that has caused much controversy online in the aftermath. "No, it was very strange. I don't know what the intention was."
As mentioned though, not all were quite as relaxed about the whole thing as Rooijakkers. For example, TNT Sports commentary of the race were left in total disbelief at how a fan had been allowed to ride so close to the leading riders in such a big race. "It's not funny, it's not big and it's not clever. This is absolutely ridiculous that you would have a spectator riding alongside the riders. They need to be taken off of the road immediately," fumed the commentary.
On Eurosport too, people were left far from impressed. "This is just ridiculous," commented a furious Hannah Walker during her coverage of the race. "If you're a fan, stay at the roadside, cheer the riders on and just enjoy the spectacle. Enjoy the entertainment, you are not part of it."
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"ESTO ES UNA FALTA DE RESPETO" 🤬
— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) April 27, 2025
Un aficionado vestido de UAE se cuela en la carrera femenina. #LBLWomen pic.twitter.com/D7a4CkaoSF
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- True, but, Mads has a few more years of collection and his season’s tally will start levelling off whereas Jonas’ should be just starting so even if Mads overtakes him, it’s probably briefly. That now all being clear, obviously the greatest is Tony Rominger, at least that’s their most popular male cyclist, which is another way of saying he must have been great :-) Hey, sorry but if someone’s going to ask rabbit-hole questions, you can only expect rabbit-hole answers.Mistermaumau14-05-2025
- Yeah, “little guy” who already beat Groenewegen and Merlier ;-) Also love how the media overhype anything in cycling, TNT saying this was a HUGE win for the team, let’s go back to using superlatives corresponding to reality. An important win maybe but c’mon, 50 points more than second when we’re at 20000? Had the team gotten 4th 5th and 6th and missed the podium completely they’d have collected more points but NO-ONE except themselves would have written one single word about their performance. Still well done to them for proving that the stage 3 pundit criticism about the little guys was unnecessary.Mistermaumau14-05-2025
- The ranking points between Jakob Fuglsang and Jonas Vingegaard is huge, BTW.. about 6700 ranking points. Mads trails Jonas by 14 points.FredMan14-05-2025
- Greatest ever? Based on CyclingRanking.com, Rolf Sorensen is #1, Jakob Fuglsang is #2, Jonas Vingegaard is #3, and Mads Pedersen is a very close #4. If you'd rather rely on personal opinion, or favorites, or what not, it's anybody's guess.FredMan14-05-2025
- I love it when the "little guy" wins!acem8214-05-2025
- Yeah, TdF is completely overrated, only amateurs and has-beens participate. And little ole skimpy Jonas has only won it as often as Switzerland or The Netherlands or Germany and Australia combined. Prestigewise there is NO comparison until he wins either the WC again or something big coz sorry G-W is basically a 2nd rate race at their level and he’s not won much else except a decent collection of stages, which Jonas and plenty of sprinters win too. Until now, MP is about pulling level with Asgreen who also won stages and classics, was a WC and HE got himself a monument and almost as many almosts as Mads but in a career only half as long.Mistermaumau13-05-2025
- Jonas is a great rider but only rides stage races so i would have to say he & Mads are about equal now. Stage racing in general is overvalued i think... (vs the power required to win one day races)Xrider5113-05-2025
- Jonas only does stage raXrider5113-05-2025
- First goats and now great danes, all we need now is a showdown at the tour of turkey, that could maybe slide into grease. Sorry, always happens when I get tired.Mistermaumau13-05-2025
- I think this kind of thing will become quite common in future in light of the way pros have had to up their game and risk-taking. Means more precarity but also a bigger pool.Mistermaumau13-05-2025
All the commentators were in unison about the situation and very critical, BUT, none of them gave any kind of suggestion how you can stop this happening on a 250km course or remove the person SAFELY without interfering in the riders’ riding or those coming from behind. The guy on the motorbike reacted pretty much as well as can be expected, impossible to have security on foot everywhere. For having directed road traffic during races, I can tell you, it’s already hard enough to get locals who aren’t fans to collaborate in the name of safety.