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news
Tour de France Stage 16 protest (via Felix Lowe on Twitter)Breaking news: Tour de France halted as riders sprayed with substance
Racing has been suspended during today's Stage 16 of the Tour de France after some riders appeared to have got pepper spray in their eyes, with a police officer having administered the substance to protesting farmers moments beforehand.
The incident happened 30 kilometres into today's stage to Bagneres-de-Luchon, shortly after the peloton had passed through the hilltop village of Fanjeaux.
Brailsford: Abuse by specatators is "a French cultural thing"
TV images showed a number of tractors lining the roadside, with farmers apparently pushing hay bales into the road.
Here's the moment that seems to have led to the race being neutralised
It appears a police officer sprays an unidentified substance towards a protestor which subsequently blows across the road into the path of the peloton
Watch LIVE on @ITV4#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/WyD5uPrspY
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 24, 2018
A police officer then apparently aimeed pepper spray at protesters and it appears that it was caught by the wind and getting into the eyes of some of the riders, several of whom needed treatment by race medical personnel.
Racing has resumed after a break of almost 15 minutes, initially neutralised to allow riders' legs to warm up again.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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13 comments
I rekon it was Froomes inhaler exploding in the heat.
LOL.
Somebody please photoshop an inhaler into this pic
Different times, different methods - Jacques Anquetil took a rather different approach when protesting farmers blocked the TdF route as I recall.
They don't make them like him any more. but then when you find out about his personal life as well as his attitude to drug use, it's maybe just as well!
Where's The Badger when we need him ?
I'm sure I saw a glimpse of him in the tractor, pushing a bale towards the Sky train.
Ah, those wacky French farmers! Dontcha just love 'em?!
(At least the French still seem to properly protest about stuff - as far as I can tell, here in the UK we just occasionally march while carrying placards saying "Down with this sort of thing!" and pretend that The Donald knows where anywhere in the Great England actually is...).
(Mind you, AFAIK the French farmers are usually protesting about subsidies, aren't they?).
(And: we'll probably find out that the policeman who used pepper spray was actually President Macron's security chief having another away-day...).
Here endeth the lesson.
I'm sure Brailsford will be able to spin this, next time Froome fails a test we can blame it all on the police.
You misspelled "fails", the correct spelling is "all charged were dropped and he was cleared"
Not to be a pedant or anything, but on my understanding no "charges" were ever brought in the first place...
(OK - that was pedantic)
Nope, those are different words altogether. I wrote 'fails', you wrote 'all charged were dropped and he was cleared'. You can't even string a coherent sentence together, so your incorrect spelling corrections become even more risible.
Sounds like the TDF needs to relocate.
Could have been much more serious, with either hay bales in the road or blinded cyclists piling up everywhere. Is it just me or is that the worst vid ever?
30km shorter stage might mean less chance for a breakaway today! Could mean fireworks on that last climb!