Jonas Vingegaard crashes during training ride after being followed by amateur rider

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.

The incident was confirmed by his team, Visma-Lease a Bike, who urged restraint from the public towards their riders. The roads around Malaga in Andalusia are popular training roads for professional cyclists, with easy access to the Sierra Nevada mountains.

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".

Another Strava user, S-enduro, commented on the activity, saying that he saw Vingegaard with a bloodied face post-crash.

"Jonas Vingegaard crashed during training on Monday," a Visma-Lease a Bike spokesperson said. "Fortunately, he is okay and did not sustain any serious injuries. In general, as a team we would like to urge fans on bikes to always put safety first.

"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."

S-enduro commented: "You both passed me coming down, and as I was almost at the last bend, I found Jonas by the guardrail, his face bleeding in two places. He must have hit it hard to drag his face along the ground. I stopped and asked him if he needed help, and he told me no, to go away, very angry.

"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."

Vingegaard has good reason to be wary of crashes; last year, he tumbled off his bike at Paris-Nice, and suffered concussion, which interrupted his season build-up. In 2024, he crashed at Itzulia Basque Country and broke his collarbone, several ribs, and punctured his lung.

The 29-year-old is scheduled to begin his 2026 season at the UAE Tour in just over a fortnight, before building up to a tilt at both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.

"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."