Danish support for Visma | LaB after Vingegaard crash: ‘It's like someone coming to sit at your table in a café’

It was Spaniard Pedro Garcia Fernandez who wrote on Strava that he had seen Vingegaard go down. “You can be professional, but you can also stay humble. Jonas crashed when he tried to drop me at the Queen’s Fountain, and when I stopped to ask if he was okay, he got angry with me for following him' were his words.

The incident once again sparked discussion about whether following pros in training is acceptable. Groupama-FDJ rider Paul Penhoët backed Visma | Lease a Bike’s message. “Why don’t they just ask us if we mind them staying near us?” The Frenchman understood Vingegaard’s frustration: “If Jonas told that guy it bothered him and the guy kept doing it, then yes, that can be really irritating.”

Holm used similar language when speaking to Ekstra Bladet. “People probably don’t realise how stressful that is for a rider. You constantly feel like someone can be sitting on your wheel. And often they’re filming you the whole time as well. At a certain point it becomes too much,' are his words to EkstraBladet.

Holm also understands why his compatriot snapped. “It must drive people like him, Pogacar and Van der Poel crazy to be followed all the time. In Holm’s view, the danger increases because recreational riders don’t have the same reactions and bike-handling instincts as pros — which can create risky situations in a split second.

He points to experiences from his time as a sports director at Soudal Quick-Step. “We once had two incidents at a training camp. First there was a recreational rider who rode into Fabio (Jakobsen, ed.). There were skid marks on his cycling shoes. The second time, a recreational rider nearly swallowed his tongue. Stijn Steels had to react quickly and take his insole out of his mouth to stop him choking.”

Whether it ends in a crash or not, Holm believes riding along with pros is, in a way, a breach of privacy. “If you’re out riding and talking with your partner, and there’s a cyclist sitting right behind you, it’s like you’re at a café table and someone comes and sits down with you to listen in on your conversation. It’s exactly the same feeling a rider gets.”

Still, the 63-year-old Dane admits there’s no perfect fix. “People could join a cycling club and learn what is and isn’t done. Someone who’s a member of a club would never even think of it. It’s a matter of basic politeness and social skills. They don’t understand it if they don’t ride that much themselves,” Holm concludes.