VIDEO: UAE's Felix Grosss grabs a truck from behind while training on the road: "It's unfortunate and unacceptable"
Cycling
Professional cyclists should be an example for the rest when they ride on the road during their training and sometimes that is not the case. This is an incident involving Felix Grosss, UAE Team Emirates rider, who we have recently seen in a video holding on to a truck while riding.
An 'X' user posted the video claiming that the rider was Felix Grossschartner and one of UAE's officials, Joxean Fernández Matxín, clarified that it was not the Austrian, but the German rider, making it clear that his behavior was "regrettable".
"Regrettable and unacceptable attitude. Clarify that it is not Felix Großschartner and if Felix Groß, the German, will not be with us in 2024. But this also does not detract from what he does, it is regrettable."
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Article written by Juan Larra.
When I was young and racing in Portugal we used to do this. We waited in a place called Azeitao for the trucks full of concrete to come up the hill. Then was a hell of a ride home.. very close to 100kms/h even the drivers were happy and made signs with hands because sometimes we have to go a little on the side to check the road... Stupid.. yes... but fun.. Do I do that now? no...
There are videos of guys doing similar in South America going much faster and the first thing that comes to mind is, are these trucks not limited in speed? I rode in Rwanda (very hilly) and saw all the bike « taxi » boys tricks for speed. They have cheap old chinese steel city cargo carriers and when loaded (50-100kg of merchandise) they can’t get up the hills, however, downhill, they’re overtaking us at full speed, zero fear (or conscience) and no shoes. Then one day on a flat part we were following a truck 50-55km/h at around 5m and filming (little report to announce it was my 50th) but three local boys who’d finished delivering and were going home had grabbed the back of the truck to get towed. Then, out of nowhere, the middle one went over an fist sized rock lying on the road with his front wheel and wheelied up into the air, no idea how but he somehow had the strength to keep holding onto the truck otherwise the three plus us would’ve gone down. All on film
There is nothing ethically wrong about that. I mean, it's a stupid risk, but it's his to take. The argument that "professional cyclists should be an example for the rest" is such BS, have you seen them go downhill? Ride with their hands off their bars? Bounce off each other in sprints? No, pros have their own risk preferences just as the rest of us do. Doing something just because you saw a pro cyclist do it is just as stupid as attempting something because you saw a pro gymnast or pro wrestler do it!
He's probably been watching too many videos of bike messengers in NYC.
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- And he probably wasn’t even at the limit ;-) Have to wonder how much Mads could catch up if he’d tune his physique to be as sharp as MVDPs’Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Respect for giving Van Eetvelt credit there.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- He’s already a star for me for HAVING complained about it, the recent trend having been, let them then try to take advantage by making them sign NDAs ;-)Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Agreed, but if it was a radio thing then all the riders should have the same story and it would be easy to call anyone out. Kind of surprised this isn’t cleared up half officially afterwards, just like the Alaphilippe divorce, seems like once something spreads on the net it kind of gets accepted that everyone wants to have their own truth so no-one bothers to contest anything that’s verifiable anymore, we all just move on.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- maybe. what makes that a LITTLE fishy is that they suddenly hit the gas and started hammering it. even mathieu, who i’ve never heard complain about ANYTHING (other than teenage girls waking him up and being spit on by belgians) was pretty hacked off about the race tactics after the split. i think he was upset for what his teammates had to do, not for the fact he ended up isolated as a result.OCexile31-03-2025
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- mads SMOKED it at ghent! love that guy. he’s just the best interview ever, always smart and hilarious and with a biting intolerance for stupidity. happy for him. just as a secondary thought, consider that mvdp beat THAT version of mads by a full minute at E3 two days ago. the gap between pog/mvdp and even tho other GREAT riders like mads is kinda staggering to comprehend. this is a time in cycling history that’s certainly worth paying attention to while it lasts.OCexile31-03-2025
- i watched the race. jasper and roodhooft have a legit anger about this. alpecin burned everyone to pull it back. they did the SAME THING after the split in E3, burning all their guys and thus leaving mathieu to fend for himself (which worked out ok because van der poel is van der poel, but still…). yeah, christopher and jasper should be a little pissed this time.OCexile30-03-2025
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- Will it take oil money to get Mads, Remco, Tadej, Ganna and MVDP to line up for the same classic or monument or will Lady Luck help us with this one.Mistermaumau30-03-2025