{"id":897550,"date":"2026-04-07T10:24:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/cycling-chaos-in-italy-as-intoxicated-spectators-try-stealing-visma-bike-from-team-car-roof\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:24:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:24:51","slug":"cycling-chaos-in-italy-as-intoxicated-spectators-try-stealing-visma-bike-from-team-car-roof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/cycling-chaos-in-italy-as-intoxicated-spectators-try-stealing-visma-bike-from-team-car-roof\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling chaos in Italy as intoxicated spectators try stealing Visma bike from team car roof"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>    <picture>                       <img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnx.premiumread.com\/?url=https:\/\/www.malaymail.com\/malaymail\/uploads\/images\/2026\/03\/29\/332819.jpg&#038;w=1000&#038;q=100&#038;f=jpg&#038;t=6\" alt=\"Team Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s French rider Christophe Laporte competes during the \u2018E3 Classic\u2019, one day cycling race, 208.8 km from and to Harelbeke, on March 27, 2026. \u2014 AFP pic\" title=\"Cycling chaos in Italy as intoxicated spectators try stealing Visma bike from team car roof\" onerror=\"this.onerror=function(){this.onerror=null;this.src='\/theme_malaymail\/images\/no-image.png';};this.src='https:\/\/www.malaymail.com\/malaymail\/uploads\/images\/2026\/03\/29\/332819.jpg';\">            <\/picture><\/div>\n<p>Team Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s French rider Christophe Laporte competes during the \u2018E3 Classic\u2019, one day cycling race, 208.8 km from and to Harelbeke, on March 27, 2026. \u2014 AFP pic<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>(New users only) Unlock 5.5%* + 10%* p.a. promo rate for 3 months <a href=\"https:\/\/versa.com.my\/2026-versa-starter-quests-for-april-new-joiners\/\" title=\"Versa\" target=\"_blank\">via Versa<\/a> and enjoy FREE RM10 &#038; when you sign up using code VERSAMM10 with min. cash of RM100 today! T&#038;Cs apply.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Sunday, 29 Mar 2026 3:26 PM MYT<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>ROME, March 29 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the fourth stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, an incident occurred involving two intoxicated supporters,\u201d a Visma statement said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to a short video posted on social media, a spectator can be seen jumping onto the roof of a stationary Visma-branded car.<\/p>\n<p>After attempting to grab one of the two bikes attached to the vehicle\u2019s roof, he falls off the car when the driver accelerates forward.<\/p>\n<p>A second spectator then reacts to the incident by striking one of the car\u2019s windows and shouting abuse at the occupants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe take this incident very seriously, as it put the safety of our colleagues at risk,\u201d Visma\u2019s managing director Richard Plugge is quoted as saying in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When contacted by AFP, the organisers of the race \u2014 part of the third tier of world cycling \u2014 did not respond. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Malay Mail <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.malaymail.com\/news\/sports\/2026\/03\/29\/cycling-chaos-in-italy-as-intoxicated-spectators-try-stealing-visma-bike-from-team-car-roof\/214309\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Team Visma-Lease a Bike\u2019s French rider Christophe Laporte competes during the \u2018E3 Classic\u2019, one day cycling race, 208.8 km from and to Harelbeke, on March 27, 2026. \u2014 AFP pic (New users only) Unlock 5.5%* + 10%* p.a. promo rate for 3 months via Versa and enjoy FREE RM10 &amp; when you sign up using<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":897551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31396,26454],"tags":[10296,42796],"class_list":{"0":"post-897550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chaos","8":"category-cycling","9":"tag-chaos","10":"tag-cycling"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}