A huge crash has happened at the front of the peloton in the Tour de France, caused by a member of the public standing in the road holding a cardboard sign. 

“Leaders down, downed riders everywhere and this is chaos. This is exactly what we didn’t want on the opening day of the Tour,” said Rob Hatch, commentating. 

The crash happened with just 45 km to go and Jumbo-Visma’s Tony Martin went down hard right at the front of the bunch after colliding with the spectator and took out most of his team, along with a large proportion of the peloton. 

Martin had no time to avoid the spectator – who wasn’t looking at the bunch and was instead grinning at the TV cameras while holding a sign over the road.

Jasha Sütterlin (Team DSM), who was caught up in the crash, has now abandoned.

Following the crash, teams have been appealing to fans on social media to stay back from the riders.