The Visma-Lease a Bike team was the victim of an attempted theft of one of its bikes during the fourth stage of the Coppi and Bartali International Week on Saturday between Ponte di Piave and Valdobbiadene (Italy), she explained. “An incident took place during the fourth stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, involving two intoxicated fans. One climbed on the roof of the team car and tried to take away a bicycle, the other behaved very aggressively towards the occupants of the car,” the Dutch team said.
“We take this incident very seriously, because the safety of our colleagues has been compromised,” explained team boss Richard Plugge, quoted in the press release. “Our staff on site immediately contacted the police and the organizers. In the end, no equipment was stolen, nor any damage caused, our colleagues in the car are fine but were, understandably, shaken by this incident,” he added.
Contacted by AFP, the organizers of the event which is part of the third level of world cycling (UCI Europe Tour), the arrival of which will be judged on Sunday in Gemona del Friuli (north-east), did not respond.
According to a short video posted on social networks, a spectator took advantage of the Visma car stopping to jump onto the roof. While trying to grab one of the two bicycles, he fell from the car when the driver drove off, which angered the second spectator who insulted the occupants and appeared to punch one of the windows.
Before the last stage, the Frenchman from the Ineos Grenadiers team Axel Laurance leads the general classification with two seconds ahead of the Swiss Mauro Schmid. Laurance won two of the four stages, the first on Wednesday and the fourth this Saturday.
