The organisers of the Ronde Van Brugge have started legal action against the climate protestor who disrupted the men’s race on Wednesday.
Golazo, the organisation responsible for staging the Ronde van Brugge (formerly known as the Classic Brugge-De Panne), has filed the complaint against the Bruges-based climate activist and serial protester Wouter Mouton.
The political and environmental activist appeared on the course Around 30 kilometres from the finish line. Wearing a bike helmet and a T-shirt with the words “kids dying by the climate crisis in 3,2,1…” scrawled on the back, he broke free from the crowd and sat down on the ground as the densely packed peloton rapidly approached.
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Outrider motorbikes swiftly reacted, forcing the Mouton off the course, but the flurry of sudden braking led to a pile up, which took down last year’s winner, Juan Sebastián Molano, effectively ending the UAE Team Emirates XRG rider’s race and injuring him in the process.
The Belgian activist has previously served a short prison term for gluing his head to Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring painting, while another fellow Just Stop Oil protester poured tomato passata over him.
Mouton, who was arrested at the scene, is believed to have been equipped with sticky stuff again yesterday. “He is also said to have been equipped with glue to stick himself to the road,” Christophe Impens, Managing Director of Golazo told Flanders news service VRT NWS. “His action put the riders, spectators and staff all at risk.
“All in all, it didn’t turn out too badly, so to speak,” continued Impens. “The biggest casualty is Juan Sebastián Molano, who won the race last year. He was taken to hospital with injuries. Hopefully he will make a speedy recovery. But imagine if the entire peloton had crashed into him en masse. This could have been so much worse.”
