ROME, March 29 — The Visma-Lease a Bike team were the victims of an attempted theft of one of their bikes during a stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy, the team said on Saturday.
“During the fourth stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, an incident occurred involving two intoxicated supporters,” a Visma statement said.
“One of them climbed onto the team car of Team Visma | Lease a Bike and attempted to remove a bike from the roof. The other supporter behaved very aggressively towards the occupants of the car.”
According to a short video posted on social media, a spectator can be seen jumping onto the roof of a stationary Visma-branded car.
After attempting to grab one of the two bikes attached to the vehicle’s roof, he falls off the car when the driver accelerates forward.
A second spectator then reacts to the incident by striking one of the car’s windows and shouting abuse at the occupants.
“We take this incident very seriously, as it put the safety of our colleagues at risk,” Visma’s managing director Richard Plugge is quoted as saying in the statement.
“Our staff on site immediately went to the police and also reported the incident to the race organization. In the end, no equipment was stolen and no damage was caused. The colleagues in the car are okay, but understandably shaken.”
When contacted by AFP, the organisers of the race — part of the third tier of world cycling — did not respond. — AFP
