Carnage at the Tour de France as a SPECTATOR causes massive pile-up on stage one
Carnage at the Tour de France as a SPECTATOR causes a massive crash by holding his placard in front of the speeding peloton, sending riders tumbling in horrific pile-up
- The Tour de France kicked off on Saturday with the riders rolling out of Brest
- A giant pile-up was caused by a mindless fans wielding a banner roadside
- The spectator wiped-out Jumbo-Visma’s Tony Martin at the front of the peloton
- More than 100 riders were stalled, with several lying injured on the road
- Team DSM’s German rider Jasha Sutterlin was forced to abandon the race
A roadside spectator showing-off a banner to the TV cameras caused chaos on stage one of the Tour de France, stepping into the road and causing a shocking pile-up.
Cycling’s showpiece rolled out of Brest on Saturday to begin three weeks of racing, but the race’s familiar first-week chaos reared its head with 45km to go.
As the peloton wound its way through the narrow Brittany back roads, the Jumbo-Visma team were organised together on the right-hand-side of the road.
A roadside spectator caused a massive crash in the Tour de France on Saturday with a banner
Tony Martin had nowhere to go when the supporter stepped out, looking at the TV cameras
The massive accident caused a massive blockage and saw more than 20 riders hit the deck
With all-but a couple of riders in the 184-strong field behind him, Tony Martin was protecting his team leader Primoz Roglic when a spectator stepped into the road, looking into the TV cameras ahead.
Martin had nowhere to go as he slammed into the fan’s arm and fell hard onto the asphalt, before the German’s team-mates and competitors piled in behind.
More than 20 riders hit the deck, with Team DSM’s Jasha Sutterlin forced to abandon the race due to his injuries.
The message on the reckless spectator’s banner read ‘allez opi omi’, which is a greeting to grandparents in French.
Tony Martin was the man brought down initially, left with some road rash on his left side
Julian Alaphilippe, who came down in the crash, remounted and went on to take victory
It was a scary start to the 2021 edition with two major crashes on the winding Brittany roads
World champion Julian Alaphilippe, who went on to win the stage, was brought down in the crash, alongside Belgian superstar Wout van Aert and Peter Sagan.
Rogue spectators interfering with the riders are a rare sight, particularly at Le Tour, and the crash is one of the most shocking in the race’s recent memory.
The cycling community reacted furiously, with Michael Hutchinson writing on Twitter: ‘It’s a long time since I’ve seen anything so stupid as that spectator.’
@MagnusOpus33 added: ‘This idiotic spectator caused the whole peloton to crash in the Tour de France. Horrendous, catastrophic. Ban that person forever.’
With the race still calm before things hotted-up for the chaotic run-in, Team Ineos and Deceuninck Quick-Step eased-off the pace at the front, allowing the walking wounded to regain contact with the bunch.
With six kilometres to go there was another pile-up, this time at much higher speeds as the favourites battled for position. Chris Froome was the big name brought down, looking in serious pain before eventually remounting and finishing the stage.
