What do Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel all have in common? Well, apart from being the big three favourites for this year’s Tour de France, they’ve all been in the news in 2026 for bizarre, awkward, and in Vingegaard’s case, dangerous encounters with cycling fans.
And after Vingegaard’s controversial training crash and Evenepoel’s deft avoidance of an autograph-hunting youngster in Valencia, it was Pogačar’s turn on Wednesday to shine a spotlight on the dos and don’ts of how to interact with your cycling heroes.
In a post on Strava, the four-time Tour de France winner claimed he was approached, while in conversation with someone, by a fan seeking a photograph. But after asking him to wait two minutes, Pogačar said the fan angrily stormed off, before their partner allegedly subjected the world champion to an angry tirade. All for not posing for a photograph.
“Honest question to all fans,” Pogačar wrote on Strava, after posting his latest 132km training ride along Spain’s eastern coast.
“If you find me in conversation with someone and you ask me for photo, I ask you to give me two minutes to finish [my] talk.
“Do you wait two minutes or show me middle finger and take off angry (and have your partner yelling at me)?
“Long day ended with losing biggest fan,” he continued, complete with a crying face emoji.
“BTW I love you all. Heck I even like the fans that are not my supporters but don’t have [the] attitude of [a] spoiled teenager.”
This isn’t the first time Pogačar has shown his unwillingness to indulge in fan requests for photographs – or remind everyone of the boundaries between the professional cyclist and those who watch them from the roadside (or spot them chatting outside a café).
At last August’s ill-fated Tour de Romandie Féminin, where the world champion’s partner, AG Insurance-Soudal rider Urška Žigart, narrowly missed out on the overall win on the final day, Pogačar was seen sporting a mostly plain white jersey bearing the slogan ‘Please Do Not Disturb! Disturb! Disturb! Disturb!’ and a ‘no camera sign’ on the sleeve.
That call for minimum interaction from his adoring public also extended, rather more seriously, to Žigart’s relationship with the press at the Tour de Romandie, with reporters at the race afforded just three questions in total with the then-race leader following the penultimate stage.
A few days after the race, as Pogačar and Žigart headed out for a post-Romandie recovery spin, accompanied by Irish rider Eddie Dunbar, the Slovenian opted for an even more conspicuous sartorial manifestation of his new ‘no photos’ policy:
And while most of the focus on Pogačar’s Strava post has centred overnight on his plea for patience, it also intriguingly featured some rare insight into the world champion’s power data while training.
According to the figures taken from his Wahoo computer, during his three-and-a-half-hour ride – mostly flat with the exception of the Pedramala kicker before the descent back into Calpe – the 27-year-old recorded an average weighted power of 307 watts, firmly in zone two for the world champion.
He also made a point to share a photograph and a short clip focused on his bike computer, showing a maximum power output of 847 watts, an average heartrate of 144 beats per minute, and a max heart rate of 163.
For a rider normally so secretive when it comes to his power data, why did Pogačar decide to release this morsel of information less than a month out from his season debut at Strade Bianche? Answers on a postcard.
Of course, as noted above, Pogačar isn’t the only big-name pro on the receiving end of unwanted fan encounters in recent week. Just up the road from yesterday’s bizarre confrontation, Remco Evenepoel was filmed at the weekend being chased through the streets of Valencia by a young cyclist apparently seeking an autograph.
However, according to the cyclist’s local club, the Belgian – who had just won the overall at the Volta Comunitat Valenciana, where he also won two stages – ignored the youngster as he made his way back to the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team bus.
“Hugo didn’t get his reward yesterday despite chasing his idol Remco Evenepoel to the bus where he didn’t stop to sign any autographs,” the Valencia Cycling School posted on social media.
And last month, Visma-Lease a Bike issued a statement advising fans out on the road to give pro riders “as much space and peace as possible” after the Dutch team’s leader Jonas Vingegaard crashed while training in Spain after allegedly becoming angry at an amateur cyclist following him too closely on a descent.
The fan who was following the two-time Tour de France winner near Málaga claimed on social media that the Dane was “trying to drop me” and “got angry with me for staying on his wheel while going downhill”.
While Visma confirmed that Vingegaard fortunately escaped without significant injury from the training crash, he was nevertheless forced to delay the start of his season until March, causing him to miss out next week’s UAE Tour.
1 thought on ““Do you wait two minutes or show me the middle finger?”: Tadej Pogačar hits out at “spoiled” fans after bizarre confrontation – and reveals rare glimpse at power data”
A pro on a training ride is working. Why fans think they are entitled to disrupt a training protocole?