The Tour de France peloton has been held up by a second mass crash in as many stages after multiple riders fell following a collision with a spectator at the side of the road.
The spectator in question appeared to stick their arm out just as the peloton, led by Jumbo-Visma, was passing through a narrowing in the road with 128km to run on stage 15. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) was caught, going down and leaving numerous riders behind him with nowhere to go.
Riders including Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Kevin Vermaerke (Team dsm-firmenich), Lars van den Berg (Groupama-FDJ) Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Lotto-Dstny) went down in the crash, though all riders caught in the fall were back up and riding shortly afterwards.
Jumbo-Visma rider Nathan Van Hooydonck went down heavily, hitting the ground hard after hitting Kuss. The Belgian sat on the ground for some time before getting up and riding again, with the race medical report saying he was treated for multiple wounds on the back.
Shortly after the crash, the peloton, which was previously at 40 seconds from the leading breakaway riders, slowed down as part of a self-neutralisation to allow those affected to get back on.
As riders caught in the crash got back on over the next 10km, the gap to the break grew out over four minutes.
There were no further abandons at the Tour de France on stage 15 as a result of the crash, with all riders continuing on towards Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, where Wout Poels took a solo stage victory. Still a number of riders will be carrying injuries into the rest day as a result of the crash.
There was also another later in the stage, with break riders Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) and Chris Hamilton (dsm-firmenich) coming down on a descent. Both continued on to complete the stage, with Hamilton commenting that he'd have some easy days before trying for the break again, while Israel-Premier Tech said Neilands only suffered "superficial wounds" in his crash and was ready to continue on after the rest day.
For goodness sake 🤬A fan holding their phone out causes a mass pile-up 📱#TDF2023 #ITVCycling pic.twitter.com/xsQEf6XtTeJuly 16, 2023
Tour de France spectator causes a huge crash in the peloton!#TDF2023 📺: Peacock pic.twitter.com/USu6eUO0o1July 16, 2023
