It didn’t take long for a giant banana to make a show of itself at this year’s Tour de France.

On Sunday on the Côte de Begues on the outskirts of Barcelona, the first climb of the opening road stage of the 2026 Tour, a spectator dressed as the giant yellow fruit (a brave choice in the blistering Catalan heat) decided to run alongside the day’s breakaway.

As Alex Molenaar, Felix Engelhardt, and Frank van den Broek tackled the climb with around 75km to go, the banana man ran directly in front of them for a spell, on a stretch of road lined with spectators, who clearly didn’t appreciate his attention-seeking antics.

That decision even earned him a rolled-up newspaper to the head, directed towards him by a disgruntled fan, while he was also forced to dodge a photographer situated on the inside of a right-hand bend.

Thankfully, Mr Banana did not impede the stage’s leading trio, though it was a close call at times, with German champion Engelhardt wide to give the running spectator a wide berth as he climbed through the bend.

Sharing a clip of the incident on social media, the Tour organisers made their first plea of the race for roadside spectators to be mindful when displaying their enthusiasm for the world’s biggest bike race and its participants.

“Don’t run next to the riders, even if you’re a banana!” the Tour’s social media account advised.

Later in the stage, the organisers also warned fans not to bring flares to the roadside, after a smoke bomb was set off as the peloton climbed to the top of Montjuïc during the finishing circuits in Barcelona.

Unruly fan behaviour has become an increasingly common theme in the cycling world in recent years. At the Giro d’Italia in May, two men were widely condemned by fans when they recklessly jumped out in front of the peloton at a roundabout, before pushing and attempting to kick the riders.

A video of the incident, filmed by the perpetrators’ friends, was uploaded to social media and showed the spectators laughing as they lunged towards the charging bunch. They were later identified and charged by police, according to local media reports.

> “As if this sport wasn’t dangerous enough”: Giro d’Italia spectator pushes and tries to kick riders after running in front of peloton

Speaking to road.cc after the stage about the impact of fans running alongside riders, former pro Alex Dowsett said that a balance needs to be struck between protecting the peloton while also retaining the character of the sport.

“It’s a mixed bag, really,” Dowsett, working at the Tour as a performance engineer for XDS Astana, said. “If it’s not impacting the front, it’s okay. There needs to be a balance. It’s kind of what professional cycling is synonymous with, though.

“It’s part of the charm, I think. If you start putting barriers up like Formula One, cycling’s going to lose what makes it special. It’s like everything in life, a balance just has to be had.

“But I think it’s right that the organisers are exercising caution on fans to placate any enthusiasm that might happen later in the race.”

Asked whether fan behaviour has changed in recent year, Dowsett told road.cc: “Perhaps in the day and age of social media and virality on social media, I would question whether the fans’ motivation is to create rather than be a part of the race.

“Back in the day, it was probably about perhaps getting on TV, but being part of a race, just you get a snapshot of riders whizzing by, that’s cycling. So if you run with them for a bit, you’re getting a longer snapshot.

“But if fans are doing it actually not for the race, and they’re doing it for their own ambitions of appearing on screen somewhere, then that’s the balance going the wrong way.”