'You have to feel for him' – Exuberant Cofidis soigneur tackled by police at Vuelta a España

As if this Vuelta a España needed any more of them, there were chaotic scenes at La Laguna Negra at the top of stage 11’s final climb, with a Cofidis team staff member celebrating wildly before being bundled out of the way by a police officer.

With Jesús Herrada surging clear for the stage victory, his team’s soigneur Raul Matias - whose job includes looking after riders at the finish - jumped into the middle of the road, just beyond the line, and proceeded to roar his rider home.

It didn’t last for long, though, as some anxious officials from the race organisation gestured at him to move out of the way, before a police officer took matters into his own hands. In the end, it took three of them to restrain him by the barriers.

“I wonder whether they just thought it was an overzealous fan jumping over barriers to celebrate with the stage winner,” said Dan Lloyd during the post-stage analysis on GCN+.

“You have got to feel for him. That’s how much it means.”

Soigneurs ordinarily wait much further behind the finish line before tending to riders with drinks, food, and clothing. In this case, Matias had somehow burst right through to mere metres beyond the line, crucially obstructing the line of sight of the finish line photographers, who wouldn’t have been best pleased at having their stage-winning shots bombed by a bouncing soigneur.

There was also a safety element, even if riders were crossing the line separately from a small breakaway group. The Vuelta has been dogged by safety issues so far, and Remco Evenepoel’s freak crash just after winning stage 3 showed the dangers of crowded areas beyond the line.

Read more: Protest threats, group chats, and endless rain – inside the Vuelta a España controversies

In any case, Matias wriggled free and managed to celebrate with Herrada, although his first job was to look after him, as the Spaniard slumped to the tarmac to recover from his lung-busting effort.

Matias is, of course, a former rider himself. The 61-year-old won three races over the course of his 13-year professional career: a stage of the Volta a Portugal in 1987, the GP Costa Azul in 1991 and the Portuguese National Championship road race in 1993.

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

Matias and Herrada beyond the finish line

Despite being in the wrong place at the wrong time, his sheer exuberance seemed to ward off any bad will, with both Cofidis and the race organisers making light-hearted references to the incident on social media.

"Love his enthusiasm but I also love what a great job the Spanish National Police have done at La Vuelta," GCN expert Robbie McEwen wrote on Instagram.

"They have already prevented two serious attacks on the peloton (they arrested a group who attempted to pour 100 gallons of oil on the peloton from above a tunnel entrance and a man who planned to drive a vehicle into the bunch) so it’s understandable that they take every situation seriously."

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