It’s not the first, and sadly it won’t be the last. The Belgian rider Steff Cras, leader of the TotalEnergies team, suffered a heavy fall during the 8th stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, on the road to Limoges, because of a careless spectator. The latter advanced too far on the road as the riders passed, the Belgian hit him and collapsed a little further. He had to retire, when he was still 13th overall in the morning at the start in Libourne.
“Steff suffers from multiple contusions on his elbow and hip. Examinations taken after the stage did not reveal a fracture, ”said his team a little later in a press release. The rider, for his part, finds it difficult to digest seeing his ambitions reduced to nothing because of a mistake. In a tweet published at the end of the day, he vented his anger against this spectator: “When a spectator advances more than a meter on the road and does not move when the peloton arrives, it would be better if he stayed. at home. You have no respect for runners. I hope you feel guilty. I have to leave the Tour because of you! »
A message supported by the president of the riders’ union, Adam Hansen. “It’s sad when things like that happen. Please fans, if you’re on the road then you’re on a racetrack,” he recalled. We can never say it enough. The start of the Tour had already been marked by problems with spectators who had deliberately placed nails and tacks on the road.