'He thought we would stop' - Lampaert on climate protest chaos in Ronde van Brugge

Lampaert was right there when it happened.

“It was actually a bizarre image,” he said to Thomas Huyge in De Reconstructie. “He was sitting there like he was glued to the road.” Riders were deep into a crucial phase of the race, fighting for position as the tension built towards the finale.

Then, in a split second, everything changed. “As we got closer, he realised we were not going to stop,” Lampaert continued. “He started waving with one hand, and then he ran into the bushes.”

Behind him, the situation escalated quickly. Riders braked, swerved, and around ten riders hit the ground. Among them was defending champion Juan Sebastián Molano, caught out in the confusion.

Lampaert managed to stay upright. “I could just get around it,” he said. “But you don’t process it. You just react.”

Looking back, what struck him most was the reaction of the man on the road as the peloton closed in. “You could see the fear,” the experienced Belgian said. “He thought we would stop.”

The incident has since taken on a legal dimension. The activist, identified as Wouter Mouton, had positioned himself on the only cobbled section of the course and was removed after the peloton had already been disrupted.

Mouton was taken into custody shortly after and remains detained pending a court decision. Organiser Golazo has filed a complaint, with the Belgian federation and several teams also preparing legal steps after the clash.

His lawyer, speaking to De Standaard, stressed that causing a crash was never the intention. “It was absolutely not his aim to provoke a fall. He wanted to stop the race to draw attention to the climate. He misjudged the situation and feels very bad about what happened.”

A decision on whether he will remain in custody is expected on Tuesday, when the Bruges pre-trial chamber reviews the case.