"It must drive him crazy": Brian Holm justifies Vingegaard's outrage with unwanted company in training

The 2026 season is meant to be the one where Jonas Vingegaard finally accepts the challenge of Tadej Pogacar and re-takes the Tour de France throne with an ambitious Giro-Tour plan. However the year started far from ideal as on one of his training rides earlier this week, the Dane lost control over his bicycle and ended up with a bloodied face. Fortunately, the 29-year-old escaped any serious injuries.

A Spanish amateur cyclist Pedro García Fernández revealed more details about the crash, as he rode behind the Visma | Lease a Bike rider during his training. According to him, the two-time Tour winner got upset with García tagging along on an uphill section, and tried to shake him off in a descent. As we know now, that didn't go well.

Since then, a fellow Scandinavian Magnus Kulset (former professional with Uno-X, currently with continental team Ringerike) came to defend Vingegaard's alleged (team refused to further comment on the incident) anger over unwanted company. Now his voice is joined by a leading figure of Danish cycling, Brian Holm, who spoke to EkstraBladet:

"People probably don't understand how stressful it is for a rider. You always have the feeling that he might run you up the ass. And often they're filming you constantly. At some point it becomes too much. Then you're crazy, I understand him (that Vingegaard allegedly got angry, ed.). It must drive people like him, Pogacar and Van der Poel crazy to have people following them all the time."

Brian Holm spent most of his active career in the 90s, when the roads were still quite a bit more calm. However during his time as sports director at T-Mobile and later Quick-Step, he noticed the increased unpleasant attention on trainings. And at times, a disaster was just around the corner, he reveals:

"We had two incidents at a training camp once. First, a regular cyclist rode into Fabio (Jakobsen, ed.). There were brake marks on his cycling shoes afterwards. The second time, a cyclist was about to swallow his tongue. Stijn Steels had to react quickly and take out his tongue so he wouldn't choke."

Furthermore, riding too close violates one's privacy to an extent. "If you are sitting with your partner and talking on a ride, and there is another cyclist sitting behind, it is like if the two of you are sitting at a café table, and someone sits over at your table and listens to your conversation. It is exactly the same feeling that a cyclist has."

Holm acknowledges that there is not much that can be done about the trend. The public roads are for everyone, but he still has a request for the recreational cyclists out there: "People could join a cycling club and learn what to do and what not to do. Someone who comes from a cycling club could never come up with that (to follow the riders, ed.). It's common courtesy and social intelligence. They don't understand it when they don't cycle that much themselves."

After the incident with Jonas Vingegaard, Visma | Lease a Bike also had a clear message, which they sent out to the press along with the update that Vingegaard was not seriously injured: "As a team, we would generally ask fans on bikes to put safety first. Both for your own well-being and that of others. Please leave the riders to train and give them as much space and quiet as possible."