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16th Jul 2023

Spectator causes huge Tour de France crash as they try to take selfie

Charlie Herbert

tour de france crash caused by spectator

About 20 riders were involved in the crash

A spectator caused a huge crash on Sunday’s stage of the Tour de France as they tried to get a selfie with the peloton.

Some 20 riders came off their bikes after Team Jumbo-Visma rider Sepp Kuss had his handlebars knocked by a supporter who was holding out a phone into the road, during the tour’s 15th stage.

As a result of the collision with the fan, Kuss swerved into his teammate Nathan van Hooydonck, who was knocked from his bike causing a huge pile up.

The incident took place with about 125km of the 179km stage from Les Gets les Portes du Soleil to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc remaining.

Fortunately, all the riders who fell in the crash on were able to continue, including 2019 champion Egan Bernal, BBC Sport reports.

The peloton was neutralised whilst the riders got back on their bikes

General classification leader Jonas Vingegaard and second-placed rival Tadej Pogacar were unaffected.

The Tour and a number of teams involved in the race have since tweeted to ask spectators to give the riders plenty of room.

Earlier in the day, the Tour had shared a clip of a near-miss involving a fan.

This isn’t the first time a spectator has got too close to the action during cycling’s most famous race.

Back in 2021, a French woman caused a huge crash when she waved a cardboard sign in the riders’ path.

The peloton was 45km (28 miles) from the end of the first stage, when her sign clipped German rider Tony Martin.

He fell to the ground and caused dozens of other riders to follow suit, in one of the biggest crashes the race had ever seen.

The 31-year-old was arrested and fined €1,200 (£1,028) for her actions, and was also ordered to pay a symbolic fine of €1 to France’s professional cyclist association, after the tour organisers had threatened to sue her for the crash.

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