Lotto-Soudal rider calls assault during training ride “coronavirus rage”

The COVID-19 Pandemic has popularized such phrases as “social distancing” and “panic buying”, but as the canceled, shut-in weeks turn to months, we might become more familiar with “coronavirus rage”. On Friday, Lotto-Soudal rider Harm Vanhoucke says he was the victim of a coronavirus rage attack by a motorist while training.

Belgium is a European nation where cycling is still allowed, the practice being totally banned in France and prohibited for recreation in Italy and Spain. Vanhoucke was riding by himself in the town of Aalbeke near Kortrijk, when a burly middle-aged man in a black van forced him off the road and struck the 22-year-old several times in the face.

“This is anything but normal in the time of coronavirus,” Vanhoucke ventured in a Facebook post. “If anyone knows this person please send me a message,” he added.

It’s unclear the extent of harm Harm suffered in the attack. Vanhoucke was tenth in this year’s Ruta del Sol and Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana.

This comes after Italian riders found themselves harassed by authorities and yelled at by passing motorists as they attempt to train for whatever happens next in the world. Bardiani-CSF rider Filippo Fiorelli wrote on Facebook on March 15: “To the person who drove within a few centimetres on the open road and insulted me that I wasn’t out enjoying myself, I was just doing my job. The written decree is clear: Professionals can go out training, so before you do anything stupid and put us in hospital, read the decree and learn!”

Riding in spring is enough of a blessing, but to be able to roll this March, with homo sapiens sapiens in another one of its trademark crowded hours, truly feels like a privilege.