Wednesday’s Tour de France finish in Valence was once again the scene of a course invasion, this time seemingly at the hands of a reported “prankster”, who climbed over the race barriers and rode his bike across the finish line, where he was tackled by a French police officer, just moments before Jonathan Milan won the sprint.
This latest route intrusion came exactly a week after a protester, wearing an ‘Israel out of the Tour’ t-shirt, made his way onto the finishing straight in Toulouse, where he was forcefully stopped by the Tour’s general commissioner Stéphane Boury, and arrested.
Boury was once again called into action in Valence at the end of rain-soaked stage 17, when a man wearing a Decathlon-AG2R jersey raced towards the finish on his own bike.
The incident, which took place as the charging peloton neared the one kilometre to go marker, was not shown on television, but was captured by the race photographers gathered at the line, with footage of it later emerging on social media.
The intruder managed to avoid Boury, who hit him on the back as he passed, before he was shoulder barged to the ground by a member of the Compagnies Republicaines de Securite (CRS), which specialises in crowd and riot control.
He was then swiftly removed from the road, allowing the stage – won by green jersey wearer Jonathan Milan after a crash-marred finale – to finish as normal.
Good response by the organization today against the protester who tried to interupt the sprint today being at the finish just one minute before the riders.
No matter for what you protest for, you have no place on the route and no reason to endanger the riders. #TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/BpSX7Dh8aK
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) July 23, 2025
According to reports in the French press, the intruder, a 31-year-old man from Montélimar, near the finish city of Valence, was not seriously hurt despite hitting the ground hard.
After being removed from the finish, he was arrested and taken into custody.
These reports also suggest that, unlike last Wednesday’s course invasion, the man’s actions were not a protest. Instead, Le Parisien has reported that he may simply have been an ill-advised jokester who wanted to honour a bet with friends.
This information seems to have been corroborated by a video posted on social media last night, which shows the man standing with his bike at the barriers with around 450m to go as the race caravan passed a few hours before the end of the stage.
In the video, captioned ‘POV: I do the Tour’, the man can be seen indicating that he will attempt to make his way to the finish line.
Along with his replica Decathlon-AG2R kit, he also points towards the DIY race number he attached to the back of his bike, while he is also seen wearing a set of numbers on the back of his jersey (the trainers may have been a giveaway that he wasn’t a late escapee from the pack, however).
Video of today’s man intercepted in the final of #TDF2025 stage (From TV2)
This was where the riders were at -1 to go.
Totally unacceptable and dangerous, kudos for the security for taking appropriate measures.pic.twitter.com/j0jqraJq95
— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) July 23, 2025
At the end of the clip, the man can be seen leaping over the barriers and onto the road with his bike, before jumping on it and disappearing towards the finish, as a friend filmed and other spectators looked on, confused.
ASO is yet to comment on the incident.
As noted above, this is the second time in a week the finishing straight of a Tour de France stage has been infiltrated by members of the public, protesters or otherwise.
At the end of stage 11 in Toulouse, a protester from Extinction Rebellion, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘Israel out of the Tour’, made his way onto the road, just as Uno-X Mobility’s Jonas Abrahamsen and Jayco-Alula’s Mauro Schmid were sprinting for victory.
ASO executive Boury tackled the protester into the barriers before he could reach the riders. He was arrested and will stand trial for endangering the riders.
Claiming responsibility for the act, Extinction Rebellion said the protest was carried out “to denounce Tour de France’s complicity in the genocide” and accused the race of “helping restore the image of the Israeli colonial regime” by allowing Israel-Premier Tech to participate.
XR Toulouse also criticised the team’s billionaire owner Sylvan Adams, a vocal supporter of Israel, claiming that Israel-Premier Tech was created with the aim of “bleaching the image of the Israeli colonial regime.”
“Neutrality does not exist. Not acting in a situation of oppression is like taking the side of the oppressor,” the group said in a statement.
20 thoughts on ““Prankster” invades Tour de France finish on bike and tackled by police after jumping barriers moments before sprint”
If the French police do this
If the French police do this to a joker, why no challenging of Immigrants? – reasonable viewpoint
leedorney wrote:
Oh do fuck off.
Succinctly put Rendel.
Succinctly put Rendel.
Classic niave response from a
Classic niave response from a left-wing London twit. An abusive “shout down” without the capability to be a grown-up and just say ” I guess so…” PS > Your bike sucks 😀 :p
Classic trolling response
Classic trolling response from an illiterate troll
Well that’s hardly a grown up
Well that’s hardly a grown up response.
alexuk wrote:
There’s certainly no need for that kind of language
alexuk wrote:
Sometimes we do not need to react to a comment from first principles.
There is a place to plumb the channels of nuance in the waters of immigration; and Reform UK Ltd, RWM and social media sickos should not be left alone to make their unrefined, malevolent, over-simplistic, rabble-rousing, dog-whistle comments without challenge and recourse to reason.
But a side comment on a completely unrelated topic on a cycling web site doesn’t seem to me to be it. We don’t need to waste time mollycoddling trolls when a simple directive to take a long walk off a short pier suffices.
alexuk wrote:
Specialized Roubaix Pro Dura Ace SL, formerly the property of Steve Bate, double-gold-medal-winning Paralympian. What you got, trolly?
You’re one of those people
You’re one of those people who turn any discussion, whether it’s flower arranging, canoeing, cycling, archery, food into something about small boats.
Boring.
dodgy wrote:
The only small boats that are relevant here are on the heads of Jumbo-LAB, particularly in the time trials.
leedorney wrote:
It’s wet there, but not as wet as the sea?
Chap looks a bit bigger than – say – a child under 10 years old?
“Immigrants” might be in France completely legally, not causing any bother, whereas this chap is presumably a danger to others (riders, marshalls) as well as himself?
You’ve got nowhere better to talk about this topic?
leedorney wrote:
Racist prick!
don simon fbpe wrote:
Racist prick!— leedorney
Reasonable viewpoint.
leedorney wrote:
You daft cunt 🙄
Tackling him on the line was
Tackling him on the line was a mistake, they had to rush to get him out of the way, it would have been better to let him ride through and capture him well away from the finish line.
You’re probably right. But at
You’re probably right. But at least this way, there’s a nice ‘f*** around, find out’ video that can be used to discourage anyone trying the same thing in future.
Backladder wrote:
I dare say their timing system app has a “Crop Activity” feature, but they probably don’t want to have to use it in case they chubby little fingers struggle to get the actual finish point just right.
Reminds me of when I quite
Reminds me of when I quite innocently ‘joined in a race’ as a youth. A national series MTB race at Innerleithen. I rode down from Edinburgh and, a few minutes after the race start, I set off on the race route, naive to the fact it was a multi-lap race.
I actually caught up with two tail-enders who were happy to chat as we negotiated the course. They decided to abandon at the end of lap one (and I certainly didn’t want to risk interfering with the leaders if lapped), so we all rolled over the finish line, with the Marshall asking for my race number. The look on her face when I said, “Oh, I was just riding for fun” was priceless, all shock, no anger!
Naturally, I never made that mistake again, though I was politely asked to drop back a bit by the police escort riders when I was a little too close to the rear of the Tour of Britain entourage for their liking one year around the same period of my life!
As for the case above, the motto is never mess with French police or gendarmerie.
This story has triggered a
This story has triggered a memory, I wonder if anyone else remembers it? Watching the 2014 Tour roadside as it came down the Embankment in London, about ten minutes before the race arrived two very fit-looking riders in, as I recall, immaculate FDJ kit with race numbers on came whistling down the road as if they were a breakaway but everyone knew they couldn’t be as people were listening to radio commentary etc. Must have been pranksters like this guy but I never heard anyone mention them, either at the time or since. Anybody know who they were and what happened to them? It was just after Hungerford Bridge.