Bruyneel provokes outrage from Zonneveld: "This kind of mindless macho bullsh*t..."

Thijs Zonneveld and Johan Bruyneel have locked horns on the infamous platform X (formerly known as Twitter). The Dutch cycling journalist tore into comments made by the former team director during an episode of his THEMOVE podcast—and it didn’t take long for the Belgian to fire back.

The online spat was sparked by Bruyneel’s take on the numerous crashes in Wednesday’s Classic Brugge–De Panne. "I have a message for everyone who thinks they can dictate what should happen," Bruyneel said. "I’ve seen things where certain riders should supposedly be disqualified immediately or banned for two weeks..."

"Here’s the news: this sport is not for pussies—this is a war," he continued. "If you don’t push, you get pushed. It’s that simple. If you want to win, you haveto focus on the finish line."

Zonneveld quoted the remarks and responded sharply: "This kind of brain-dead macho bullshit is the main reason cycling has become so dangerous—and why so little is done to improve rider safety. Cycling is not war, it’s a sport," the Dutchman said.

Read more below the tweet!

Bruyneel and Zonneveld strongly disagree on X, to say the least

Of course there was a reaction to that. "And that’s exactly why you never became a real cyclist, Mr. Zonneveld… Like I said: this isn’t a sport for pussies. Cycling is a sport, and if you want to win, you're in a war. And a little advice: maybe listen to the full podcast before vomiting your frustrations all over the place. Also, give my regards to your fellow softie wannabes," Bruyneel fired back.

Zonneveld didn’t hold back in his reply either. "I’d rather be ‘not a real cyclist’ a hundred times over than be a team manager partly responsible for turning the peloton into a rolling pharmacy—and who now cheers on riders taking each other out."

Read also

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