Even professional cyclists must respect the Highway Code. While many teams began their traditional winter preparation on the winding Spanish roads, several riders had a bitter experience.
On Thursday, December 11, several members of the Groupama-FDJ team saw their outing of approximately 135 km, for 1,380 m of elevation gain, suddenly stopped by Iberian police officers.
A mishap revealed by a publication by Ewen Costiou. On his Strava account the rider published a mysterious photo in which we see an agent issuing fines, their vehicle surrounded by bikes from the French team. The runner then wrote in the caption: “100 euros per head, he had a great time”. However, he does not specify the reason for these fines.
“Well then we don’t respect the Highway Code? », joked his teammate David Gaudu before the publications were deleted from their accounts. However, she is still visible on social networks.
According to some observers, the ten Groupama-FDJ riders – including Rémi Cavagna, Tom Donnenwirth and Rudy Molard – were arrested after running a red light on a small road between the towns of Calp and Lliber located in the province of Alicante.
This is not the first time that professional riders have been arrested by Guardia agents. In an article La Voix du Nord recalled that on December 1, Johannes Staune-Mittet, runner for the Decathlon-CMA CGM team, had received a fine… for wearing headphones. A common practice.
“I imagine it’s better to buy one of these bone conduction headsets rather than getting a fine every day because of the Airpods,” the Norwegian told the Northern media during a press conference of his training… without knowing that the sanction would be the same.
As a reminder, it is prohibited to ride with earphones, earbuds or headphones in France. The fine is 135 euros. And whether you are an amateur runner or a professional cyclist in training.
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