Tadej Pogačar lashes out at police motorbike rider blocking road as relentless Slovenian briefly hampered (again) by fan congestion on climb

Tadej Pogačar’s route to victory at this week’s Volta a Catalunya may be as serene as they come, with the 25-year-old stunningly imperious every time the road heads skywards, but his literal path to victory this afternoon was obstructed, at least briefly, by two support motorbike riders struggling to make their way past the lines of fans encroaching into the road to catch a glimpse of the rampaging Slovenian on the final climb to Queralt.

Entering the final kilometre of yet another dominant solo victory in the mountains at the prestigious Catalan stage race – his third of a staggeringly dominant week, even by his lofty standards – a minute ahead of closest rivals Mikel Landa and a resurgent Egan Bernal, Pogačar’s progress was interrupted by two police support riders failing to pick their way through the densely packed climb at a speed appropriate for arguably the world’s best professional cyclist.

In scenes remarkably similar – albeit with less jeopardy involved – to the congestion that greeted Pogačar as he attempted to dislodge Jonas Vingegaard on the Col de Joux Plane at last year’s Tour de France, an attack abruptly curtailed by two support vehicles blocking the road, the Slovenian was slowed dramatically by the two police motorbikes as he rounded a bend with 650 metres to go.

❤️ Pogačar mandando al carrer a un policía. Es el elegido. pic.twitter.com/rvJDzEeC64

— Albert Rivera Rabal▲ (@AlbertRiveraR) March 23, 2024

Visibly frustrated by the delay, Pogačar waved and gestured at the police officers to move, before finally picking his way through a narrow gap between them and the fans, slapping one of the bikes repeatedly before finally accelerating out of the saddle as the road cleared.

While Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates manager described the moto riders’ actions at last year’s Tour as “unacceptable”, the dominant nature of the Slovenian’s performance at the Volta a Catalunya will likely mean that today’s latest bout of mountain congestion in a major stage race will be forgotten swiftly enough.

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After kicking off his 2024 season with a bang, and a devastating 80km solo raid, at Strade Bianche, Pogačar has been untouchable at the Volta this week, winning three of the race’s six stages so far (and finishing second in a fourth), and heading into tomorrow’s iconic final stage in Barcelona over three and a half minutes ahead of Landa, and 4.53 clear of Bernal.

Which is probably why the Slovenian didn’t appear to dwell too long on his briefly interrupted ride to the finish, even praising the fans that lined the roadside in his post-race interview.

“Movistar tried to attack [on the penultimate climb of the Collada de Sant Isidre], and I just launched there. I saw some people follow but I thought ‘okay, we go to the top’. And the rest is history,” he said at the finish.

“Solo on the downhill with a bit of care and the final climb was really nice with all these people, but I was suffering a lot.”

> Motorbikes that foiled Tadej Pogačar attack thrown off Tour de France for one day, as UAE Team Emirates blast “unacceptable” lack of distance from riders

Despite Pogačar’s nonchalance following his brief bout of frustration, and the lack of impact it had on the race itself, today’s congestion at the Volta a Catalunya is the latest in an increasingly long list of incidents involving motorbike riders and their influence on races.

Following Pogačar’s aborted sprint for bonus seconds on the Col de Joux Plane at the 2023 Tour, which at the time anyway appeared crucial to the fight for the yellow jersey, one France Télévisions motorbike and a photography motorbike belonging to L'Équipe were fined 500 Swiss Francs and excluded for one stage for their role in the controversial incident.

“I was blocked by a motorbike, which was also blocked. It’s a shame, I think my first sprint was for nothing,” Pogačar said at the time.

“That’s a pity. But it wouldn’t have changed the outcome I don’t think. I still felt that I lost effort in my legs because I could no longer sprint for the bonus. I screwed that up. But it is what it is.”

“It’s circumstances [that can happen but] the rules from the UCI are that the car has to be 25 metres ahead. Being two metres in front is unacceptable,” UAE Team Emirates manager Joxean Fernández Matxín added after the stage.

> “This is like Ventoux all over again”: Thomas Voeckler excluded from Tour de France stage after motorbike chaos on Col de la Loze holds up Jonas Vingegaard

And just days later, chaos reigned once again on the Col de la Loze as the motorbike carrying French Tour hero Thomas Voeckler – working on the race as a pundit for France Télévisions – stalled on the steepest slopes of the Alpine climb, causing a traffic jam which held up several riders and forced race leader Jonas Vingegaard to stop and briefly unclip.

The 44-year-old retired French pro – who enjoyed two lengthy spells in the yellow jersey during his career, as well as finishing fourth overall at the 2011 Tour – and his driver Joël Chary were also suspended for one day from the race and fined 500 Swiss Francs for the untimely stop, which occurred on a 24 percent bend near the summit of the Col de la Loze.

> Motorbike riders slammed for pushing and clipping Tour de France Femmes rider, after Jumbo-Visma claim race-ending crash was caused by moto

The controversy also spilled over into the following week’s Tour de France Femmes, where one moto rider was fined for clipping breakaway rider Kathrin Hammes, almost causing the EF Education-TIBCO-SVB rider to crash, and prompting CPA riders’ union president Adam Hansen to call for “better education for some motorbike riders”.