The man who hopped barriers at the Tour de France to ride to the finish line has been given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay significant damages to the police officer who tackled him to the ground.
Dubbed a “prankster” in many reports, it has also been suggested that the 30-year-old man was honouring a bet with friends when he invaded the finish of Wednesday’s sprint finish in Valence, riding in a Decathlon-AG2R jersey before being abruptly knocked to the ground by a shoulder charge from a police officer.
The bizarre scene unfolded just moments before the peloton contested a thunderous sprint finish, won by Jonathan Milan, the incident raising safety concerns about what could have happened if the invader ended up riding alongside pro cyclists winding things up for a 70km/h bunch kick.
As it happened, he was dragged away from the line and the invasion did not impact the stage finish, although photos and footage spread quickly online and the story was reported around the world.
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
AFP news agency has now provided an update to the tale, reporting that the man was charged with “entering a sports competition area and disrupting the competition, refusing to comply and assaulting a person in a position of public authority”. The man received an eight-month suspended sentence and has been ordered to pay €500 damages to police officer who tackled him and who was knocked to the ground in doing so.
Reports based off prosecutor Laurent de Caigny’s sentencing suggest the man has three previous convictions and has also been banned from entering any sports venue for five years, although no further details on this restriction were provided.
During the incident, it is believed the man hopped the barriers as a video on social media showed him 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.
The video was captioned: ‘POV: I do the Tour’ and showed the man indicating he would attempt to ride to the finish. He had also attached a DIY race number to his bike, the footage then showing him jumping onto the course as a friend filmed.
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
When he reached the finish line he managed to dodge the Tour’s general commissioner Stéphane Boury, but was shoulder barged off his bike by a member of the Compagnies Republicaines de Securite (CRS), which specialises in crowd and riot control. Despite lying motionless as he was dragged from the finish, the man was reportedly not seriously injured.
Boury had an eventful three weeks with finish-line invaders, the ASO executive having tackled a protester from Extinction Rebellion, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘Israel out of the Tour’ at the end of stage 11 in Toulouse. The protestor was arrested and will stand trial for endangering the riders, Boury intercepting them just as Uno-X Mobility’s Jonas Abrahamsen and Jayco-Alula’s Mauro Schmid were sprinting for victory.
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.
