Jonas Vingegaard crashed on a training ride on Monday after reportedly being tailed by a amateur cyclist.
The Dane came off his bike near Malaga in Spain after he attempted to drop the rider on a descent.
A cyclist from the region, Pedro García Fernández, wrote with a Strava activity that the Dane “was going down fast just to leave me behind and ended up on the ground”.
“For both your own and others’ wellbeing, please allow riders to train and give them as much space and peace as possible.”
In his activity post on Strava, Fernández wrote: “You can be professional, but you can also be humble. Jonas fell while trying to leave me behind as we were going down the Queen’s Fountain [a well-known cycling route in the mountains outside Malaga]. When I stopped to ask how he was, he got angry with me for following him down. He was going down fast just to leave me behind and ended up on the ground.
“I don’t do this for a living; I’m an amateur like most people, so I don’t understand his anger as a professional about it.”
“Now I understand. It’s clear he’s the professional and responsible for how he rides, but I also think that people like him, who are professionals and have so much at stake, should be given their space and respected.
“They risk their lives, their salaries, and the livelihoods of many people around them. It seems to me he felt a bit pressured and went down faster than he should have on a road he doesn’t know well.”
“We changed the programme and it’s something I’m really motivated by,” he said earlier this month. “Personally, I really needed the change.”
“By repeating what you do every year, you get into the same roll and do the same every year. It’s not like I’m not motivated, but it’s more like sometimes you also need something new to increase your motivation again. I feel myself that I have a new energy I haven’t had for a few years.”
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