Ineos Grenadiers sports director Oli Cookson has been fined £4,700 and issued a yellow card after hitting a spectator while driving behind the breakaway during today’s stage of the Tour de France, won by the British team’s Dutch rider Thymen Arensman.
Cookson, a longstanding staff member at the squad and the son of former UCI president Brian Cookson, was driving the team car behind Ineos duo Arensman and Carlos Rodríguez, who had attacked as part of a small escape group during stage 14’s 182km Pyrenean epic.
With around 32km to go, a few hundred metres from the summit of the Col de Peyresourde, the third of the stage’s four major climbs, footage emerged of the driver of the Ineos team car striking a spectator, who was standing in the road.
In the footage, the spectator, wearing a green coat and part of a crowd of fans standing on the left-hand side of the road near the top of the Peyresourde, can be seen filming the breakaway with her phone when she was struck by Cookson’s car.
She briefly landed on the car’s bonnet before clattering to the ground, the driver immediately stopping the car following the impact. The condition of the woman is not yet clear, though Tour de France organisers ASO have been approached for comment.
La voiture d’@INEOSGrenadiers a percuté un spectateur dans la montée de Peyresourde.#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/Bvj5eBayP8
— Paul Moutarde (@PaulMoutarde) July 19, 2025
Following today’s stage, which Arensman won solo Superbagnères, a minute clear of yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar, the official communique issued by the Tour’s commissaires revealed that Cookson has been fined and yellow carded.
Though the Tour did not explicitly state the incident as the reason for the jury’s decision, the communique said Cookson was reprimanded for “incorrect behaviour endangering spectators”, citing article 1.12.007-8.2.2 of the UCI rules.
The British sports director was fined 5,000CHF (around £4,700) for his role in the crash, and issued a yellow card.
Under the UCI’s new warning system, introduced earlier this year, this means that if Cookson receives another yellow before the Tour is finished, he will be disqualified from the race and handed a seven-day suspension.
24 thoughts on “Ineos Grenadiers sports director fined £4,700 for hitting fan with car during Tour de France stage”
Hope she’s ok, but you should
Hope she’s ok, but you should’ve stuck to gardening, Oli!
If only she’d been wearing hi
If only she’d been wearing hi-viz…
On a serious note, that looks nasty and I hope she’s OK.
I don’t want to minimise the
I don’t want to minimise the seriousness of this, and I really hope that she’s alright after this, but I’m surprised this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often.
There are thousands upon thousands of fans, team cars with drivers under huge amounts of stress, and little if anything to separate the two.
Not great from Ineous car,
Not great from Ineous car, but at the same time, does really seem that spectators have been particularly bad at risking themselves and riders in recent days. So little respect for the race or riders being shown. Hope spectator is OK, but at the same time, hope they also receive a fine for having zero road sense.
mitchibob wrote:
I totally disagree with this, yes there have been numerous very stupid spectators since the parcours went upwards, but this lady wasn’t one of them. The fans were behaving pretty well, with a whole lane being left open for the riders and the entourage. There was no risk to the riders or the spectators except for the fact that the INEOS driver suddenly and inexplicably decided he would rather drive down the lane full of spectators rather than the completely clear one. The spectator was standing still, well back from the riders and vehicles coming through, no “zero road sense” involved. The massive fine levied and INEOS’s immediate contrition and apology (not reported here) are clear indicators of who was at fault and it wasn’t the victim.
Rendel Harris wrote:
For you or me it might be massive, for ineos its just a rounding error!
I agree , even though there
I agree , even though there are those who seem to think it’s a small minority of fans . Yesterday on the final climb, watching Vingegaard and Pogacar, there was a point where I wondered if Pogacar could even attack if he wanted due to the fans being so close. Where was he meant to go? In this instance he rode away from Vingegaard later on but it still a point where fan interference could have potentially effected the result.
I certainly didn’t claim it
I certainly didn’t claim it was a small minority, certainly on lots of mountaintops it seems to be a substantial majority and yes the blocking of the leaders on the final ascent was absurd yesterday. However in this specific instance the lady was not occupying part of the road needed for the riders or cars, she was standing still and watching the race go by in a perfectly acceptable and orderly manner and the INEOS driver made a bad mistake. To reiterate what I said above, do you think the organisers would have issued such a huge fine or that INEOS would have accepted it and issued an immediate apology if the fan was even partly at fault? As cyclists we get more than enough victim blaming “shouldn’t have been there even if it was a mistake from the driver” nonsense, let’s not do it to others.
I’ve always wondered how come
I’ve always wondered how come Ineos Grenadiers don’t use actual Ineos Grenadiers as team cars. AG2R Citroen used Citroens, so…mind you, a w@nkpanzer like a Grenadier would probably turn a spectator into mush, so…
SecretSam wrote:
I’d guess there are size limits, otherwise it would make sense for every team to run a couple of Transits as their support vehicles.
I don’t know if there are
I don’t know if there are size limits but there are practical limits, they would be better off using something like a fiat 500 that would fit through the gaps easier, they could still mount 3 or 4 bikes on a rear rack for service. It wouldn’t be as comfortable for the driver and passengers but they’re not on a touring holiday, they’re working and should use the most suitable vehicle.
I’m all for smaller (or no)
I’m all for smaller (or no) cars in most circumstances but a Fiat 500 really wouldn’t work as a team car. Bikes on a rear rack would be hopeless, how much time would be wasted if the bike needed was the one nearest the boot and you had to dismount all the others to get it? Also the teams need to carry a lot of kit inside the car, dozens and dozens of drinks bottles and coolers for them, loads of food and gels, spare parts of every description, including wheels, and enough rain jackets, spare helmets and other clothing for the whole team. Additionally, the mechanic needs space on the back seat for running repairs on the move. As you say, they’re working; to do their work properly they do need a fairly roomy vehicle.
I was thinking more of a
I was thinking more of a custom build roof rack type storage mounted on the back of the car, It would be as quick as getting a bike off the roof and easier to get to the inner ones. Since these cars are only used for following races they can be customised internally as well , removing the 4th seat and fitting custom storage. Since there are two team cars each car probably only need 60-70% of the total spares/food/drink etc. I’m sure they fill the vehicles they have but that is what people do, buy a bigger house and within a couple of years you wonder how you managed in the old smaller one.
I remember this in the70’s
Can’t see it I’m afraid, even
Can’t see it I’m afraid, even if they did have custom racks you say four bikes, they can currently carry eight or more…both cars need to carry the full complement of kit, food, spares etc for obvious reasons, if one of your riders goes up the road in a breakaway one car has to go with them and the other car is stuck with 90% of the team and only 60% of the necessary supplies. Our local ZipCars that we rent when we need a car are often Fiat 500s, nice little cars but I’ve sat in the back of them and as a relatively tall and broad chap there’s not much room just for me, however much you customise the storage there’s never going to be room in the back for a mechanic to work. Also, as the lapse in concentration in the incident described here shows, you need the drivers to stay fit and focussed throughout stages that can last up to six hours of incredibly stressful driving, cramming them into a small car is not going to help with that.
I agree, but this is super
I agree, but this is super cool. So want a vintage one.
Nice throwback to one of my
Nice throwback to one of my favourite bike shops. Displaced from the Corn Exchange on Cathedral St by the Manchester bomb, they were relocated temporarily to Eccles, then to Australasia House before embarking in 2000 on the final stage on Whitworth St, closing in 2023.
The shop had opened in 1955; Harry Hall was Tom Simpson’s mechanic in 1967 for Simpson’s ill-fated Ventoux ride.
For everything there is a season.
I was a regular there in the
I was a regular there in the late 70’s as they were the only place that had a good selection of stock, other local shops Like Cowans were better for repairs as they gave priority to local racers but were limited in race stock.
Lovely picture though I
Lovely picture though I believe Harry in that incarnation (obviously in others he was a top pro mechanic, including for Tommy Simpson in ’67) was supporting amateur racers as a general race mechanic with a couple of spare bikes and some wheels, more like today’s neutral service bikes than a team car.
True, but an original mini
True, but an original mini pick up is a lot smaller than a current fiat 500 😉
I could accept a compromise of a small car for following the break and a larger car to support the riders remaining in the peloton.
Well it’s a thought but how
Well it’s a thought but how would you know whose bikes to put on the small car? No team can guarantee which of their riders will make the break. What I’d really like to see change more than the size is for all team cars and press and camera motos to be compulsorily fully electric. Uno X proved last year that it can be done.
Spare bikes set up for your
Spare bikes set up for your team leader and breakaway specialist and then a small and a medium with extra long seat tubes to suit anyone else. Electric is a good idea, plenty of cars capable of the distances required now, not sure about the motos though but it might work if they had swappable batteries.
Or they don’t work.
Or they don’t work.
Being pale imitations of Defenders, perhaps they inherit Lode Lane manufacture traits.
As the Australians say: if you want to go anywhere, get a Land Rover; if you want to come back, get a Toyota.
Or…bear with me here…
Or…bear with me here…
The UCI and ASO could actually manage the crowd properly. Are we really meant to believe that they can’t do this for the big races at least? They choose not to – to protect their profit margins.
If they brought in fines like
If they brought in fines like this for traffic offences in general, rather than just ones which impact the public profile of Le Tour, I suspect it would really focus people’s attention and make the roads a lot safer