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), Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Lotto-Dstny) went down in the crash, though all riders caught in the fall were reported to be back up and running 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 running again.
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.
More to come…
💥Huge crash in the peloton. 💥Énorme chute dans le peloton. #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/2P9GJ5UtFuJuly 16, 2023
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