Fan who caused major crash identified, teams urge not to take selfies | Tour de France

The fan caused the fall when he presumably wanted to take a selfie and knocked Kuss off balance with his outstretched hand. He was not arrested, but his contact details are known to the police. It is about someone who lived near yesterday’s starting place. Justice will contact Jumbo-Visma to ask whether the Dutch team plans to take further steps.

Jumbo-Visma team boss Richard Plugge was furious after the incident and showed no understanding. ,,We are hit in our tactics, the riders are hit personally and the course of the Tour is affected. That can never be the intention of someone who wants to take a selfie. But what are you doing here if you cause so much damage to the riders?”

The general manager of the team saw the consequences later in the stage. ,,It is a pity that Sepp had to release. He normally never has to do that on such a climb”, Plugge was disappointed. ,,It is a pity that he is knocked off his bike by such a spectator. That’s the biggest blow today. Nathan fell hard, Dylan (Van Baarle) fell, Sepp fell. Our tactics got confused because of that. In the beginning of the ride we miss Nathan and at the end Sepp. The impact of such a blow from a spectator is terrible.”

The team boss says they need to have a quick talk with Tour organizer ASO about how to solve it. ,,Maybe we should close the mountains”, Plugge thinks aloud. “Or do you have to pay a tenner. That already scares off a lot of people who have no business there.”

Other teams have also called on spectators to be more careful on the side of the road. “You don’t have to take a selfie to capture a memory,” Team Cofidis said in a statement.

Former Tour winner Egan Bernal was also on the asphalt. His team Ineos-Grenadiers called on the spectators to “give space to the riders”.

Jumbo-Visma sports director Grischa Niermann was satisfied with the outcome of the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France. Yellow jersey wearer Jonas Vingegaard lost no time on his main challenger Tadej Pogacar and still has a ten second lead in the general classification before the second rest day.

“We would rather be ten seconds ahead than ten seconds behind, but it could have been more,” said the sports director. “It may be ten minutes for me and for the rest of the team, but for the spectators it is a great fight.”

According to Niermann, avoiding loss of time was optimal on the last mountain. ,,This arrival was good for Pogacar. I think we should be happy that Jonas was able to keep the wheel.”

Team boss Richard Plugge also sees that the two riders are evenly matched, although he felt that Pogacar was not very strong in this stage. It’s actually going to start now, he said with a view to Tuesday’s time trial and Wednesday’s tough mountain stage. ,,Everyone is tired and that fatigue will play a major role. Now the question is who recovers best after two weeks.”

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