Tadej Poga\u010dar is getting his own security detail for training rides.<\/p>\n
Speaking to this week to Spanish outlet AS<\/em>, UAE Emirates-XRG sport manager Joxean Fern\u00e1ndez Matxin revealed his super team is taking radical steps to ensure the safety of its prime asset.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, what we do is put a motorcycle behind Tadej,\u201d Matxin said.<\/p>\n The revelation comes hot off the back of two high-profile, highly unfortunate interactions between the public and the pros.<\/p>\n Jonas Vingegaard crashed during a training ride in January while being followed by an amateur, and Poga\u010dar last week recounted an ugly encounter with a short-fused fan who was seeking a selfie.<\/p>\n The incidents come amid a growing trend of Instagrammers and vloggers risking it all for \u201ccontent\u201d while they pedal through popular pro training zones.<\/p>\n The mishap with Vingegaard in particular raised a debate about how amateurs should interact with riders at \u201cwork,\u201d and how both populations share the open road with drivers.<\/p>\n Matxin told AS<\/em> he\u2019d seen some of the worst examples during his team\u2019s training camp in Alicante this winter.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen some very complicated situations where many cyclists, caught up in the excitement, start recording in the middle of the road,\u201d he said. \u201cIf at that moment a cyclist gives you a rude response because they see a car coming towards them, they\u2019re the one who comes out looking bad.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why UAE Emirates-XRG is taking etiquette and appetite for risk out of the picture.<\/p>\n The multiple world and Tour de France champion now has an escort to protect him while he works.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a motorcycle to protect Tadej in Alicante, because we ride in small groups,\u201d Matxin told AS<\/em>. \u201cIf you have groups of 20, the cars behind can\u2019t overtake them. So we ride in groups of eight, but if other cyclists join in, the groups become too large.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, what we do is put a motorcycle behind Tadej to ensure that the small group is respected and that cars can pass without creating a traffic jam,\u201d Matxin said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether Poga\u010dar receives any such \u201cescort\u201d for his solo jaunts around his home on the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur.<\/p>\n For a rider who might train 30 hours a week, a designated outrider might not be feasible, even for the endless resource of a $60 million super team.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the news is an intriguing development in pro cycling\u2019s newest tension.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/pogacar-gets-a-moto-escort-for-training\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-Copy-of-VLAB.jpeg”] Jim Cotton Updated February 19, 2026 03:48AM Tadej Poga\u010dar is getting his own security detail for training rides. Speaking to this week to Spanish outlet AS, UAE Emirates-XRG sport manager Joxean Fern\u00e1ndez Matxin revealed his super team is taking radical steps to ensure the safety of its prime asset. \u201cNow, what we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1780323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1780323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1780323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1780323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1780323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The tricky relationship between pros at work and amateurs at play<\/h2>\n
![\"poga\u010dar](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2234733572.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")