In a behaviour that would solely be referred to as weird and inexplicable, a spectator threw chips on Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) on Tour de France stage 14 on Saturday.
Just as Pogačar was blasting his method solo up the ultimate climb of Pla d’Adet, a spectator jumped in entrance of him to throw chips onto the face of the race chief. The spectator, carrying solely shorts and a yellow hat is standing close to the center of the highway, as Pogačar approaches, earlier than throwing chips from a bag in his palms. Obviously displeased, the Slovenian shook his head as he continued on to take an emphatic victory.
Not achieved, the spectator did the identical factor to Vingegaard who was chasing solo, nonetheless on the similar spot about two kilometres from the end line.
“There was fairly a little bit of booing and somebody was throwing chips, I heard additionally they threw the chips at Tadej and that’s unusual to do. Just keep off the highway and don’t boo anybody. I don’t perceive why you go to a motorcycle race and boo at individuals, “ Vingegaard stated after the stage.
One of the best joys as a biking fan is to have the ability to watch the riders up shut, particularly on a mountain stage. However, touching riders, impeding the race in any method and clearly throwing something at them are all fully out of bounds.
Adam Hansen, president of the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA) introduced on x (previously twitter), that “the CPA will take authorized motion towards this man with pleasure because of what he did to each Pogacar and Vingegaard. This is disrespectful and won’t be tolerated.”
It shouldn’t be the primary fan incident at this 12 months Tour, as Jan Hirt (Soudal-Quickstep) broke his enamel after he hit the deck after getting caught on a spectator’s bag in group space earlier than begin of stage 1 in Florence
Earlier this 12 months, a spectator threw a hat at Mathieu van der Poel’s rear wheel as he soloed to victory in Paris-Roubaix week, an incident that introduced an official investigation.
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