One of the most significant cycling competitions, the Tour de France, was overshadowed by controversy when a fan’s disastrous attempt to take a selfie resulted in a perilous collision. The event occurred during an important race stage, emphasizing the dangers of fan intervention and sparking worries about the safety of both cyclists and spectators.

The competition completed 13 stages of exhilarating display of athleticism and with only two points separating the top two riders. But two consecutive crashes in stage 14 and 15 have tainted this year’s tour. A fan’s greed for a selfie during the stage 15 race caused a massive crash, as he lent his hand out to try to get a quick capture.

Selfie leads to massive pile-up

As per the live video, a fan extends his arm while trying to take a photo. Sepp Kuss of Jumbo-Visma collided with the spectator and crashed at the front of the peloton during a congested stretch of the renowned race.

The crash caught up riders including Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Kevin Vermaerke (Team dsm-firmenich), Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Lotto-Dstny). Nathan Van Hooydonck, a rider with Jumbo-Visma, suffered a particularly bad fall and sat on the ground for a while to recover. There are no indications that the Belgian rider suffered any major wounds because he was able to stand back up and continue.

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The crash left 20 riders affected and several injured for the rest of the race. The accident occurred with 128 km remaining on the journey from Les Gets les Portes du Soleil to Saint Gervais, Mont Blanc, in the southeast of France.

NBC Sports Cycling released a video of the crash on its Twitter channel.

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Riders and experts react to unnecessary incident

Sepp Kuss spoke to the media at the end of the day,

“There was a spectator leaning into the road, I guess. It just happened suddenly and that’s part of the Tour, there are a lot of people. Ideally, that wouldn’t happen, but it’s the biggest bike race in the world and a lot of people don’t know exactly what’s going on.”

“There was a narrowing in a town. We were just trying to slow down the peloton to let the break go and then just on the side. Unfortunately, somebody wanted to get a selfie. I didn’t really see it coming,” he narrated.

Experts expressed their extreme displeasure with the incident and echoed the need to address the fine margins. The potential compounding effect of such instances are unpredictable.

Fortunately, it didn’t appear that anyone was seriously hurt. The Stage 15 course, which covered a distance of 179 kilometres from Les Gets les Portes du Soleil to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc in France, was successfully completed by all the cyclists involved in the accident. Wout Poels of the Netherlands ultimately won the stage, who was leading the breakaway by a few minutes at the time of the collision.

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