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Fan with sign causes massive wreck during first stage of 2021 Tour de France

The 2021 Tour de France got off to a crash-filled start Saturday. Cyclist Tony Martin rode into a fan holding a cardboard sign Saturday during the first stage, which began in Brest, France. The fan, who appeared to be trying to get on TV, was in the road and took out nearly an entire peloton of riders.

"It was stressful," said former Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas, via The Associated Press . "I was just concentrating on staying on my bike, basically. Happy to get through it."

The worst Tour de France crash I've ever seen pic.twitter.com/1jngQE1pYg — daniel (@cyclingreporter) June 26, 2021

A huge crash at #TDF2021 this morning was caused when a spectator held out a sign and struck a rider. Jasha Sütterlin was forced to withdraw from the race due to an injury sustained in the crash, according to @LeTour . pic.twitter.com/XCcEjHRAGp — NBC Sports (@NBCSports) June 26, 2021

It was the first of two pileups in the stage. The Tour de France's official Twitter account later cautioned fans to protect the cyclists while enjoying the event.

"Don't risk everything for a photo or to get on television!" the tweet said .

Former world champion Julian Alaphilippe was involved in the first crash but stayed on his bike and went on to win the stage.

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Fan Causes Massive Tour de France Crash by Taking Selfie

• Author: Joseph Salvador

It might be the most careless selfie in sports history. A fan trying to take a picture during the 15th stage of the Tour de France inadvertently made contact with a competitor and caused a massive crash on Sunday. 

A video caught a fan in a white hat trying to take a selfie with an arm extended in the pathway of riders, and the spectator clipped American Sepp Kuss’s handlebars while passing. Kuss crashed, and he brought down myriad other riders with him, leading to a massive pileup of riders, including teammate Nathan van Hooydonck of Belgium.  

About 20 riders crashed, and Dutch cyclist Wout Poels subsequently won the stage to capture the first stage win of his career. 

“There was a narrowing in the town and a spectator in the road, and I guess he just clipped my handlebars,” Kuss said of the incident, according to the BBC . “Luckily I’m O.K., and hopefully the other guys in the crash are all right. It’s not ideal. 

“I think it’s fatigue,” he continued. “It’s been such a hard race, and everybody is a bit tired. You lose a bit of alertness and there’s always things out of your control as well.”

Sunday’s crash occurred about 50 kilometers into the 179-kilometer stage from Les Gets les Portes du Soleil to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc.

The crash was the worst at the Tour de France since an infamous incident in 2021, when a woman holding a sign clipped a rider, leading to a massive crash. Two riders had to withdraw from the event, and eight were injured. She turned herself in and was forced to pay a fine after going to court. 

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Spectator arrested for allegedly causing massive Tour de France crash

Three riders withdrew from the race, according to the organizers.

PARIS -- After a four-day search, a woman was arrested Wednesday as part of the investigation into a large crash at the Tour de France earlier last week, according to local prosecutors.

The 30-year-old suspect turned herself into police and expressed feelings "of shame, of fear, in the face of the consequences of her act," public prosecutor Camille Miansoni said Thursday. She is "distressed by the media coverage of what she calls 'her blunder,'" added Miansoni.

Prosecutors said police would take measures "proportionate to the seriousness of the facts and to the personality of the author."

The woman is accused of causing a large crash by holding a sign in front of cyclists in the opening stage of the competition on Saturday. She had allegedly left the scene before authorities arrived. Her cardboard sign read "allez opi-omi," meaning "go grandma-grandpa" in German.

After the crash, three riders withdrew from the race due to their injuries, according to the Tour's organizers, including German cyclist Jasha Sütterlin of Team DSM.

"Following the crash, he was taken to hospital for examinations which revealed no broken bones, but a severe contusion to his right wrist that will require further examinations back at home," Team DSM said in a statement about Sütterlin, who admitted he was "so disappointed."

Tony Martin, a member of top Tour contender Primoz Roglic's Jumbo Visma squad, hit the woman on the right side of the road, causing a domino effect for riders inside the peloton.

The first fall was followed by another, which injured four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome.

Riders briefly halted the race on Tuesday to protest against the danger caused by spectators who were too close to the road.

"Following the crashes during the third stage of the Tour de France, the riders have been discussing how they wish to proceed to show their dissatisfaction with safety measures in place and demand their concerns are taken seriously," the riders' union, the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés, said in a statement. "Their frustration about foreseeable and preventable action is enormous."

MORE: French authorities investigate pile up crash at the Tour de France

The local chief of police Nicolas Duvinage on Thursday called for calm in a press conference, saying the suspect was trying to send a message on TV to her grandparents and that it is "wise not to carry out a media lynching."

Fearing a backlash, Tour de France organizers decided to drop their suit against the fan in question and withdrew their complaint "for the sake of appeasement ... in the face of the excitement on social media," said Tour director Pierre-Yves Thouault. "We don't want to look like we are flogging a dead horse. But we remind you of the safety rules."

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Tour de France won't press charges against woman who caused crash

By Elaine Cobbe

July 2, 2021 / 7:31 AM EDT / CBS News

A cycling fan who caused a huge pileup on the opening day of the Tour de France on Saturday handed herself in to police in Brittany this week, but was to likely avoid prosecution as the Tour organizers decided not to press charges.

The woman leaned out into the road in front of the lead pack, holding up a homemade banner for the TV cameras and not looking out for the riders.

German competitor Tony Martin rode right into the banner and was knocked over. He fell sideways, toppling the rider beside him and setting off a domino effect that left most of the pack on the ground or at a standstill behind them.

At least 21 cyclists were injured, including four-time champion Chris Froome of Britain.

GREAT TO SEE SPECTATORS BACK INVOLVED IN SPORTS EH pic.twitter.com/Kwxj8be2Qh — Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) June 26, 2021

Police did not name the woman, who was in custody on Wednesday. However, local media said she was a 30-year-old Frenchwoman. At first it was thought she was German because her homemade banner was a mix of French and German: "Allez opi omi" or "Go grandpa, grandma."

The woman fled the scene but police appealed to the public for information about her identity after the Tour organizers, ASO, said they would bring a lawsuit against her for involuntarily causing injury through reckless behavior — a charge that carries a $1,770 fine. 

On Thursday, however the ASO said it no longer wanted to press charges, in a bid to calm the situation, but they reminded fans to keep away from the riders.

Elaine Cobbe is a CBS News correspondent based in Paris. A veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience covering international events, Cobbe reports for CBS News' television, radio and digital platforms.

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Spectator causes multi-rider crash on Tour de France stage 15

Peloton held up 50km into mountain stage by second mass crash in as many days

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.

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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.

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For goodness sake 🤬A fan holding their phone out causes a mass pile-up 📱#TDF2023 #ITVCycling pic.twitter.com/xsQEf6XtTe July 16, 2023

Tour de France spectator causes a huge crash in the peloton!#TDF2023 📺: Peacock pic.twitter.com/USu6eUO0o1 July 16, 2023

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Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Prior to joining the team, they had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur.

Dani has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France, World Championships, and the spring Classics. They have interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel, Demi Vollering, and Anna van der Breggen.

As well as original reporting, news and feature writing, and production work, Dani also oversees How to Watch guides and works on The Leadout newsletter throughout the season. Their favourite races are Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix and their favourite published article is from the 2024 edition of the latter: 'Unless I'm in an ambulance, I'm finishing this race' – Cyrus Monk, the last man home at Paris-Roubaix

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Rivalries, crashes and meltdowns: Tour de France storylines to watch

Imagine speeding down a winding mountain road going 60 mph, protected by little more than carbon, spandex and a helmet, surrounded by nearly 200 competitors as thousands of stunned onlookers shout and jeer. 

Now, imagine doing that for six hours a day for three weeks, with just two rest days to gather enough strength and wits to keep going.

Welcome to the Tour de France, the most elite bicycle race in the world and perhaps the most grueling endurance challenge undertaken by professional athletes.

For the first time in the race’s 111-year history, the Tour de France will begin in Italy and end somewhere other than in Paris, which is hosting the Summer Olympics . Cyclists will traverse nearly 2,200 miles of stunning European landscapes, departing from Florence on Saturday and snaking up to the Pyrenees Mountains, through the Alps and down to the Mediterranean Sea. It will conclude in Nice on July 21. 

It’s no secret that while the Tour de France draws tens of millions of viewers worldwide every year, American audiences have largely overlooked professional cycling after Lance Armstrong’s very public professional demise. 

In 2012, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency accused Armstrong’s seemingly untouchable team of running “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

Armstrong, who won seven Tours after having cancer, vehemently denied the allegations for years until he confessed in a 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey. His downfall culminated when the Union Cycliste Internationale, professional cycling’s governing body, stripped him of all seven Tour de France victories. 

After years of disinterest, American viewership may be on the rebound, thanks, in part, to the release of “Unchained,” a Netflix show by the production team behind the blockbuster “Drive to Survive” docuseries, which focuses on Formula 1 racing. “Unchained” goes behind the scenes of cycling’s biggest rivalries, capturing in vivid detail the commitment, sacrifice and zeal needed to conquer the Tour de France. Think violent crashes, uncontrollable sobbing and inter-team mudslinging.  

With so much drama surrounding professional cycling’s biggest race, here are a few storylines to watch in the coming Tour de France.

Jonas v. Tadej 

This year’s biggest showdown will be a tiebreaker for the ages. Jonas Vingegaard, the Danish superpower leading team Visma-Lease a Bike, will return to defend the yellow jersey after he won the Tour de France in 2022 and last year. But Tadej Pogačar, a Slovenian wunderkind riding for UAE Team Emirates, has a score to settle. He took home the yellow jersey in 2020 and 2021, and this year he obliterated competitors in the spring classics and in Italy’s grand tour, the Giro d’Italia. 

Vingegaard heads to Florence with a major disadvantage after he was hospitalized for nearly two weeks with a collapsed lung, a broken collarbone and broken ribs in April during the Tour of Basque Country. He spent much of the spring recovering from the horrific crash and training at altitude with teammate Wout Van Aert, who was injured in a separate crash. 

Complicating matters is the recently announced departure of American cyclist Sepp Kuss from Visma’s Tour de France lineup. He shepherded team Visma to three grand tour victories last year. But Tuesday, Visma announced Kuss has Covid and won’t ride in the Tour. 

Setting a Tour record 

Will Mark Cavendish beat the record for most stage wins at the Tour de France? With 34 victories behind him, Cavendish, the Astana Qazaqstan Team sprinter, remains tied with the great Eddy Merckx. He planned to smash that record last year and retire from professional cycling, but he crashed out of the Tour before he achieved his dream. Now 39 years old, Cavendish will head to Florence with that one goal in mind.

But he has fierce competition by the name of Jasper Philipsen of team Alpecin-Deceuninck. Philipsen, of Belgium, emerged last year as the peloton’s top sprinter, winning four stages with the help of teammate Mathieu van der Poel, also known as the Flying Dutchman. 

Combined, Philipsen and van der Poel are perhaps the most formidable pair and perhaps the most controversial. Philipsen’s aggressive tactics, including trying to block other riders, repeatedly came under question last year, triggering reviews by race officials and drawing criticism from viewers and pundits alike. Race officials ultimately ruled in favor of Philipsen, but his reputation had been sullied by the end of the Tour.

Evenepoel debut 

Soudal Quick-Step’s Remco Evenepoel will chase a podium finish in his Tour de France debut. But at 24 years old, Evenepoel remains untested at the grand Tour, and he has suffered several setbacks in recent months. 

Evenepoel, the two-time world champion from Belgium, broke his collarbone and a shoulder blade at the Tour of Basque Country in the crash that took out Vingegaard. He crashed again this month at the Critérium du Dauphiné. He quickly recovered and went on to conquer the time trial, but he ultimately lost the top spot to Slovenian cyclist Primož Roglič, who is also gunning for the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. 

In his latest setback, Evenepoel was forced to bow out of the Belgian National Championships after he came down with a cold. He has less than a week to recover before he tackles the Tour de France.

Roglič vengeance 

Whether Roglič can beat former teammate Vingegaard and win his first Tour de France will be one of the best storylines to watch. 

Roglič, who rode on team Visma for five seasons, is no stranger to first place. He won the Vuelta a España three years in a row, from 2019 to 2021, and he took first at the Giro d’Italia last year. In 2020, he came in second at the Tour de France but lost to fellow Slovenian Pogačar. 

Last year, Roglič sought a second win at the Vuelta a España, but he was pressured to back up his then-teammate Kuss. The unexpected change frustrated the already ornery Roglič, and soon afterward he announced he would leave Visma. Now with team BORA-hansgrohe, Roglič will face off against both Vingegaard and Pogačar at the Tour.

Doping problems

Professional cycling can’t seem to shake the shadow of doping more than a decade after Armstrong confessed to cheating.

Vingegaard’s jaw-dropping time trial last year, when he beat Pogačar by 98 seconds, set tongues wagging. His performance was almost too good, triggering rumblings inside and outside the peloton that he might have used performance-enhancing drugs. Vingegaard, who tested negative several times throughout the 2023 season, denied cheating and said he welcomed the tests to help prove his innocence.

This year, two cyclists have been disciplined for using prohibited substances. In May, Colombian cyclist Miguel Ángel López was banned for four years in an investigation led by Spanish authorities concerning a doctor who worked in the sport. The UCI anti-doping tribunal found him guilty of using and possessing menotropins, a female fertility drug that can stimulate production of testosterone in men. 

Last week, Italian cyclist Andrea Piccolo was dropped by his team, EF Education-EasyPost, on suspicion of transporting human growth hormone. His dismissal was all the more shocking given that his team manager, Jonathan Vaughters, had confessed to doping during his tenure as a professional cyclist riding on Armstrong’s team. 

Alicia Victoria Lozano is a California-based reporter for NBC News focusing on climate change, wildfires and the changing politics of drug laws.

Fan Causes Massive Crash In Tour De France Cycling Race

Reporter, HuffPost

The 108th Tour de France cycling race got off to a chaotic start on Saturday when a spectator’s sign hit a racer, triggering an enormous pileup.

Replay video shows the fan smiling and facing the same direction as the racers, with a large cardboard sign sticking out into the narrow country road. Tony Martin, a 36-year-old German cyclist, was reportedly the first to go down, followed by a neighboring racer who fell on top of him.

The spectator’s sign read “Allez Opi-Omi!” in black marker ― a message for the holder’s grandparents.

Massive crash. Tour de France pic.twitter.com/2UI6XuY1Uc — daniel (@cyclingreporter) June 26, 2021

GREAT TO SEE SPECTATORS BACK INVOLVED IN SPORTS EH pic.twitter.com/Kwxj8be2Qh — Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) June 26, 2021

look at this absolute nightmare that resulted pic.twitter.com/3Nf2QFMqHu — Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) June 26, 2021

It was not immediately clear whether anyone had been seriously injured in the wreckage of bicycles and bodies, but at least one person’s bike appeared to have snapped.

Some of the racers ― including Martin, who appeared to have a bloodied arm ― picked themselves up and continued on, with 29-year-old French cyclist Julian Alaphilippe crossing the finish line first. Others waited behind for new bikes to be delivered from their teams.

But it was not smooth sailing from then on: A second big crash that occurred at a higher rate of speed tripped up many of the cyclists who had either missed or overcome the first one. One rider who was flung off his bike narrowly missed hitting a telephone pole along the road.

2 views of the #TourdeFrance crash (second big one of the day). One rider came really close to literally flying head/back first into a telephone pole. pic.twitter.com/2i6pMZBo8m — Cork Gaines (@CorkGaines) June 26, 2021

The 2,124-mile race began today from Brest, a city at the westernmost tip of France. Racers were less than 30 miles from the day’s finish point when the first crash occurred.

The tour’s official Twitter account tweeted out a reminder to fans alongside a montage of spectators getting up close and personal with riders in past races.

“We’re glad to have the public on the side of the road ... but for the Tour to be a success, respect the safety of the riders! Don’t risk everything for a photo or to get on television!”

⚠ We're glad to have the public on the side of the road on the #TDF2021 . But for the Tour to be a success, respect the safety of the riders! Don't risk everything for a photo or to get on television! pic.twitter.com/eA6nnhRhWv — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) June 26, 2021

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He’s In! Jonas Vingegaard Will Race the 2024 Tour de France

The two-time yellow jersey winner is on Visma-Lease a Bike’s roster for the big event—along with Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss.

Vingegaard has been training at altitude for the past few weeks, and according to the team’s statement , he said, “I am excited to start the Tour. The last few months have not always been easy, but I thank my family and Team Visma | Lease a Bike for their unwavering support. We have worked together to get to this moment, and of course, I am very excited to see where I stand. I feel good and very motivated.”

The team’s Sporting Director, Merijn Zeeman, said, “I am very proud of Jonas and the coaching team. He is coming back from a serious injury. In the last few weeks, he has shown what a champion he is, both mentally and physically. Of course, we don't know how far he can go yet. We are being cautious because he has not been able to race, and his preparation has been less than ideal, to say the least. But he will be there, healthy and motivated.”

Joining Vingegaard at the Tour will be nine-time stage winner Wout van Aert, who is also recovering from a serious injury following a crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen . Van Aert said, “I am really looking forward to the Tour de France. Of course, this was not the plan initially, but after my development in the last weeks, I really wanted it, and the team agreed. Our main goal is, of course, to ride a top classification with Jonas. I want to contribute to that with an excellent team.”

The rest of the Visma-Lease a Bike team for the Tour de France will include Sepp Kuss , Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman, Matteo Jorgenson, Christophe Laporte, and Jan Tratnik. If everyone stays upright and healthy, this is a very balanced team that could do a lot in this Tour, which is exactly what everyone wanted to see. In fact, Tadej Pogačar has already “liked” the social media post by Visma-Lease a Bike announcing their team.

The team also released a special edition Renaissance jersey for the Tour, which is very different from their traditional yellow and black. Let the games begin!

Micah Ling is a freelance writer who lives in the mountains of Colorado. She splits her free time between mountain biking and trail running.

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TOUR 2024: How well do you know the Tour de France? Try the AP’s quiz

FILE - A cyclist rides next to an installation set up for the start of the 107th Tour de France cycling race, in Nice, southern France, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

FILE - A July 26, 1970 photo from files of Belgium’s Eddy Merckx cycling in the 1970 Tour de France. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Britain’s Chris Froome, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey arrives for the start of the eighth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 187.5 kilometers (116.5 miles) with start in Dole and finish in Station des Rousses, France, Saturday, July 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

FILE - Italy’s Marco Pantani, right, of Italy, sprints to beat overall leader Lance Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, and capture the 12th stage of the Tour de France cycling race between Carpentras and Mont Ventoux, southern France, Thursday, July 13, 2000. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

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How well do you know the Tour de France? Try this quiz ahead of cycling’s biggest races, which starts on Saturday:

1. From which city does the 2024 Tour de France start?

b. Florence, Italy

c. Duesseldorf, Germany

2. Where does the race finish?

b. Nice, France

c. Brussels, Belgium

3. What is the record for the most Tour de France wins?

4. Who wears the yellow jersey at the Tour de France?

a. The race leader

b. The rider with the most stage wins

c. The best young rider in the race

5. What is the name of the team associated with the Tour’s biggest doping scandal?

a. U.S. Postal

c. Team Sky

6. Which rider was nicknamed the Cannibal?

a. Lance Armstrong

b. Miguel Indurain

c. Eddy Merckx

7. What is the Red Lantern?

a. A red lantern signaling the final kilometer of each stage

b. The name given to the last-place rider in the general classification

c. The starting hut in time trial stages

8. What is the broom wagon?

a. A vehicle used to clean the road ahead of every stage

b. A vehicle following the race and picking up riders unable to make it to the finish

c. The lowest gear ratio possible used on steep climbs

9. When is the last time a Frenchman won the Tour de France?

10. What is the smallest winning margin at the Tour de France?

a. 58 seconds

b. 8 seconds

c. 13 seconds

11. Which rider holds the record for the most stage wins at the Tour de France?

a. Mark Cavendish

b. Chris Froome

12. How many riders have died in the Tour?

13. During which climb did Jonas Vingegaard take the lead from Tadej Pogacar during the 2022 Tour?

a. Col du Granon

b. Alpe d’Huez

c. Col du Galibier

14. Vingegaard and Pogacar have won the last four editions of the Tour. How many stages have the two rivals won combined?

15. Who was the last rider to win the Giro d’Italia and the Tour in the same year?

a. Vincenzo Nibali

b. Lance Armstrong

c. Marco Pantani

16. How much money does the Tour de France winner earn?

a. 500,000 euros ($534.000).

b. 1 million euros ($1.07 million).

c. 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million).

1. b. The race starts in Italy for the first time.

2. b. The final stage will be held outside Paris for the first time since 1905 because of a clash with the Olympics, moving instead to the French Riviera. Because of security and logistical reasons, the French capital won’t have its traditional Tour finish on the Champs-Elysees.

3. c. Only four riders have achieved this feat: Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Lance Armstrong won the race seven times in a row from 1999-2005 but was later stripped of his titles for doping.

4. a. The yellow jersey is called “le maillot jaune” in French. It was created in 1919, well after the Tour started in 1903. The newspaper that sponsored the race, L’Auto, was printed on yellow paper, hence the jersey’s color.

5. b. The 1998 Tour de France was notable for the major scandal that emerged with the discovery of widespread doping on the Festina team. The subsequent police crackdown led to seven of the original 21 teams either withdrawing or being ejected from the Tour.

6. c. Eddy Merckx reportedly earned the nickname following his first Tour win in 1969, after a teammate told his daughter Merckx would not let anyone else win anything. “Daddy, he is the Cannibal,” the girl said.

7. b. “Lanterne Rouge” applies to the last-place rider in the general classification.

8. b. The broom wagon picks up riders unable to make it to the finish.

9. b. France has lacked a Tour winner since Bernard Hinault posted the last of his five victories back in 1985.

10. b. Greg LeMond’s margin of victory over French rider Laurent Fignon in the 1989 Tour. Fignon started the final day with a 50-second lead over his American rival but the Frenchman suffered from saddle sores and dropped 58 seconds in the final time trial to lose the yellow jersey.

11. a and c. Both Mark Cavendish and Eddy Merckx have won a record 34 Tour stages. Cavendish is trying to break the record this year.

12. c. The first rider to die during the race was Adolphe Heliere, who passed away during a rest day in 1910. Francisco Cepeda died after a crash in the downhill of the Col du Galibier in 1935. One of the most successful British riders, Tom Simpson, died of heart failure during the 13th stage in 1967 which was later determined to be from an overdose of drugs and alcohol. The last rider to die on the Tour was Fabio Casartelli, who died after crashing in the descent of the 1,069-meter (3,507-foot) Col de Portet d’Aspet during the 1995 edition of the race.

13. a. En route to his first Tour de France win, Vingegaard moved away from Pogacar in the brutal climb to the top of the Col du Granon to enjoy a winning finish to an epic day in the Alps. The stage featured two other monster ascents, the daunting Col du Telegraphe and Col du Galibier.

14. c. Pogacar has won 11 stages, Vingegaard just 3.

15. c. Pantani did the Giro-Tour double in 1998. Nibali made an attempt in 2016 after claiming the Giro but the 2014 Tour champion finished 30th that year. Armstrong rode the Giro only once, in 2009, and his 12th-place finish was later wiped out for doping. Pogacar is making an attempt this year after dominating the Giro in May.

16. a. 500,000 euros.

More Tour de France coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/TourdeFrance

The Tour de France's first doping scandal, 100 years on

Sport The Tour de France's first doping scandal, 100 years on

The Tour de France is a race that has always been intrinsically linked with its past.

The race drips with its own sense of self, with its history dictating everything from its route to its idiosyncratic quirks.

This year's 111th edition is no different.

For the first time since 1903, Paris will play no role in the route, a by-product of the imminent Olympic Games.

That wasn't an issue in 1924, incidentally, when the Grande Arrivée into the Parc des Princes velodrome in Paris clashed with the final day of the swimming, tennis and boxing, and came slap-bang in the middle of the gymnastics.

But times change and now, a century on, the sporting and cultural behemoth that is the Olympic Games takes precedent.

So, the Tour was forced to change things up — and looked no further than into its extensive back-catalogue for alternative inspiration.

They settled on honouring the Tour's first Italian champion, Ottavio Bottecchia, with a Grand Départ in Florence, Italy for the first time.

The race will have three stages in Italy before the race crosses into southern France .

That 1924 victory was the first of two consecutive Tours de France wins Bottecchia achieved before his mysterious death in 1927 — but that's another story.

Bottecchia was, by all accounts, the strongest in the race, but his passage towards victory was no doubt aided, in part, by the acrimonious exit of defending champion Henri Pélissier, to whom Bottecchia finished second in 1923.

Pélissier was one of the great French cyclists either side of World War I, winning a total of 10 Tour d France stages, split before and after the conflict as well as claiming victories in Milan-San Remo, Paris-Brussels, Bordeaux-Paris and Paris-Tours.

He also won Paris–Roubaix twice and the Tour of Lombardy three times to round off an impressive and imposing resume.

Aside from being a terrific rider, the cantankerous Parisian was also a firm believer in getting a fair go for his fellow riders.

He frequently butted heads with Tour de France founder, Henri Desgrange over the spartan conditions the race director imposed on the competitors, both on the Tour and at other races throughout the calendar.

The 'calvary' of early Tours de France

Tours de France have always been extreme tests of endurance.

This year's race covers 3,499.2km with almost 53,000m of elevation gain.

Overall, riders will expect to be racing for a total of 80 or so hours over the course of the three-week, 21-stage race.

That's nothing compared to 1924, though.

A century ago, riders completed a whopping 5,425km shared across just 15 stages — Pélissier complained later that the race was like "a calvary," only the way to the cross only had 14 stations — the Tour had 15.

"You have no idea what the Tour de France is," he added, speaking to French journalist Albert Londres, whose reports in le Petit Parisien newspaper created a sensation when they were published.

The shortest of those 15 stages was a mountainous 275km from Nice to Briançon in the Alps — 44km longer than the lengthiest stage on this year's route. The longest was a barely conceivable 482km from Les Sables-d'Olonne to Bayonne which took 19 hours and 40 minutes to complete.

Bottecchia's total winning time was a shade over 222 hours, or just over nine days in the saddle.

But it wasn't just the distances.

A stickler for observing archaic and antagonistic rules, Desgrange demanded that every rider finished with the same equipment that they started each stage with.

That meant any punctured tyres needed to be carried with them and any extra jackets or jumpers that were being worn at the start of the stage — which often started in the cold, early hours of the morning before sunrise, before riding through the heat of a French summer's day — had to be worn at the finish.

"We don't only have to work like donkeys, we have to freeze or suffocate as well," Pélissier said.

"Apparently that's an important part of the sport."

After an instance where Pélissier was docked time for losing one of his jerseys, he said he went to find Desgrange, who told him that he could not throw away anything provided by the race organisers. 

Pélissier's argument that the race had not provided him the jerseys — Pélissier, unlike other riders, had arranged his own sponsorship — adding that he would quit the race in protest.

He eventually did so, taking his brother Francis and another rider, Maurice Ville with him.

It was on that day that he ran into Londres in a cafe next to the station in the small Normandy village of Coutances.

Les Forçats de la Route

Over a bowl of chocolate, the subsequent interview blew the lid off some of the more unsavoury aspects of the Tour that has cast a lengthy shadow over the entire sport ever since.

In that cafe, the two Pélissier brothers and Ville outlined what exactly the riders had to consume to get through those monstrous stages.

Spoiler alert, it wasn't bowls of chocolate.

"Do you want to see how we walk?" writes Londres, describing Henri Pélissier taking a vial out of his bag.

"This is the cocaine for the eyes, this is the chloroform for the gums," Henri Pélissier said.

Ville now emptied his bag on the table, revealing an ointment that "warms the knees".

All three riders then revealed the three boxes of pills they had with them.

It was Francis Pélissier that said the most explosive line.

"In short, we ride on dynamite," he said.

The story of that Tour de France was immortalised in Londres' reporting, a book which he titled: Les Forçats de la Route, the convicts of the road, in which he also revealed that the riders said that, instead of sleeping, they danced a jig in their rooms at night and suffered with "draining" diarrhoea. 

All three backtracked from the comments, suggesting they were overplaying things for a man in Londres who was not a cycling journalist per se — his typical beat was foreign affairs and the exposing of the horrors of colonialism. 

But even accounting for that, there were no repercussions from the startling admissions revealed in the book.

Why? Well, what the Pélissier's and Ville admitted to was far from against the rules.

In fact, French law only prohibited the use of stimulants in sport in 1965, over 40 years later.

In part, that was a reaction to the death of 24-year-old Danish rider Knud Enemark Jensen, who collapsed during a time trial at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.

Despite the ban on stimulants, doping cases in the Tour have followed with alarming regularity.

Whether it was Tom Simpson's horrendous drug-addled death on the slopes of Mont Ventoux in 1967, right through to the seismic Festina affair of 1998 and then the subsequent seven lost Lance Armstrong years.

The most recent case that directly impacted the Tour featured Nairo Quintana and his Arkéa-Samsic squad .

Quintana was disqualified from his sixth place finish in 2022 after testing positive for Tramadol — a substance banned by the UCI but not on the WADA list.

And still it continues.

Just this week, Italian rider Andrea Piccolo was sacked by EF Education-EasyPost Pro Cycling after the 23-year-old was stopped by Italian authorities on suspicion of transporting human growth hormone into Italy.

Piccolo was not scheduled to race the Tour, but did compete in the Giro d'Italia earlier this year.

Drugs have been a part of the Tour de France for over a century, leaving every subsequent winner to face questions over the legitimacy of their triumphs, even if the optimist hopes that sports science and the extraordinary levels of scrutiny placed upon the leading riders today means what we've seen is fully legal.

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What to Know About This Year’s Tour de France (Which Begins in Italy)

Two previous winners are the leading contenders to win cycling’s most famous race, which, in a rarity, does not end in Paris.

By Victor Mather

For three weeks starting Saturday, the world’s best cyclists will do battle in the Tour de France, racing through valleys, hills and high mountains. Though 176 riders will start, most eyes will be on a pair of two-time winners who seek title No. 3.

After more than 2,000 miles and dozens of punishing climbs, will the winner be Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark, who took the last two Tours de France but was hurt in a crash this year? Or Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia, the 2020 and 2021 winner ? Or will an unexpected contender jump up and surprise them?

And, wait: Is it really the Tour de France if the race doesn’t finish on the Champs-Élysées? Here’s a primer to read before the race gets underway.

Where will they race?

For the first time, the race will start in Italy , with the opening stage beginning in Florence and winding through the Apennine Mountains to Rimini, a city on the Adriatic coast. It will be more difficult than most opening stages, with several uphill climbs.

After a few days in Italy, the race will enter France, then go counterclockwise around the country, passing through the Alps, the Massif Central, the Pyrenees and then the Alps again.

Who are the favorites?

Vingegaard won last year’s event by an emphatic seven and a half minutes. But after a good start to the 2024 cycling season, he crashed badly in the Tour of the Basque Country in April and spent 12 days in the hospital with a broken collarbone. He is expected to ride in the Tour de France, but there is uncertainty as to what kind of shape he will be in.

As a result, Pogacar, who has been in fine form, is the favorite to win and regain his crown.

Pogacar rode in the Giro d’Italia, or Tour of Italy, in May. Unlike riders in that race who hold back to preserve their strength for the Tour de France, he gave it his all, winning by almost 10 minutes. If Pogacar claims the Tour as well, he will be the first cyclist since Marco Pantani, in 1998, to win the Giro and the Tour in the same season.

After the big two, other possible contenders include Primoz Roglic of Slovenia, the 2023 Giro winner, and Remco Evenepoel of Belgium, who won the 2022 Tour of Spain.

Though an individual wins the Tour, his team can help a lot, pacing him in the mountains and blocking attacks from rivals. Last year’s leading team, Jumbo-Visma (now Visma–Lease a Bike) has broken up; Vingegaard is still its leader, but Roglic left to join Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. UAE Team Emirates will support Pogacar with a squad that includes Adam Yates of Britain, a rider with the talent to win the Tour himself; he placed third last year.

Tell me the days that really matter.

The first stage to focus on is July 2, when the riders travel from Italy to France. It includes a climb up the Galibier, one of the Tour’s toughest mountains, and one that still has snow on the side of the roads.

In the midst of a week of flat stages that won’t change the leaderboard much, there is a time trial on July 5 in Burgundy wine country. The riders will race alone against the clock, with no help from teammates, which is why a time trial is known as “the race of truth.”

The real action comes at the end, with five mountain stages. The July 13 stage is particularly notable; it includes a climb up the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees and ends with an uphill — or more accurately, up-mountain — finish that is sure to winnow out any pretenders. Also make note of July 14, 17, 19 and 20 as four more brutal mountain stages where the Tour is likely to be won, or lost.

But even the flat stages, which are usually won by sprinters and seldom affect the overall standings, may have some extra interest this year. The great sprinter Mark Cavendish, 39, has 34 career stage victories and needs one more to break the record he shares with Eddy Merckx, the dominant rider of the 1960s and ’70s.

What’s different this year?

The day after that last mountain stage, the race will end, but not with the traditional ceremonial cruise down the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Instead, the field will hold a time trial to finish the Tour for the first time since 1989. If the race is close, the winner could be decided on that final day, as it was in 1989. That year, the American Greg LeMond snatched the Tour from Laurent Fignon of France in a time trial by a mere eight seconds, still the closest margin in history.

To avoid the Paris Olympics, which open five days later, the time trial will run from Monaco to Nice. It is the first time since 1974 the race has not ended on the Champs-Élysées and the first time ever it has not ended in Paris or its environs.

Remind me what the jerseys mean.

In each stage, whoever is the overall leader wears the yellow jersey to make him easier to spot for TV viewers and the thousands of fans along the route.

But there are other jerseys, too. Finishing near the front in individual stages, especially flat ones, earns points toward the green jersey for best sprinter. Last year’s winner of this jersey was Jasper Philipsen.

The first riders to reach the top of the race’s many mountains earn points toward the garish polka-dot jersey for best climber. The top contenders for yellow are also favored to win this jersey, as is Giulio Ciccone of Italy, who won last year.

Are there any Americans racing?

The days of American favorites like LeMond and Lance Armstrong are over for the time being. Moreover, Sepp Kuss, the American who won the 2023 Tour of Spain, is out because of a Covid-19 infection.

Matteo Jorgenson, 24, on the Visma team, is the top-ranked American. He won this year’s weeklong Paris-Nice race, and some think he can contend for the tour’s title in the future, or maybe, if all goes well, this year.

How can I watch?

Stages generally start around 6 or 7 a.m. Eastern time and last four to five hours. In the United States, Peacock will stream every stage live. Some stages will be shown on NBC and USA as well.

Other broadcasters include ITV and Eurosport (United Kingdom), SBS (Australia), FloBikes (Canada), France Televisions (France), ARD (Germany) and J Sports (Japan).

Victor Mather , who has been a reporter and editor at The Times for 25 years, covers sports and breaking news. More about Victor Mather

• How to watch in the UK
• How to watch in France
• How to watch in Australia
• How to watch in the US
• How to watch with a VPN

How to watch Tour de France: Live stream the race free from anywhere

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The Tour de France, the most iconic cycling race in the world, is back for its 111th race. We've put together everything you need to know about how to watch the Tour de France, including free live streaming options. 

Contrary to its name, the race will kick off this year in Florence and coast around Italy for a few stages before heading into France for the majority of the contest. The competition is spread across 23 days, with 21 different race stages and two Mondays for rest. The race will conclude on July 21 in Nice, France. The winner is determined as the cyclist with the shortest combined times across the entirety of the race.

Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard won the 2022 and 2023 races and will return to defend his title following a massive crash in April that left him hospitalized for several days. Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar, who won the 2020 and 2021 Tour de France, is Vingegaard's main competition heading into the race this year. In May, Pogacar won the Giro d'Italia, the first of the annual Grand Tour races, by a shocking, almost 10-minute margin.

Keep reading to learn all of the ways you can live stream the Tour de France, no matter where you are in the world. Plus, we'll keep updating this page with daily start times for each leg of the race.

• See also: Where to watch US Olympic Gymnastics Trials | Where to watch Formula 1 | Where to watch MotoGP

How to watch Tour de France in the UK

The Tour de France will air daily on ITV4 in the UK, which means that it's available to live stream for free through ITVX . This English-language option only requires account creation to use and is a popular international option for VPN users around the world.

How to watch Tour de France in France

In France, the Tour de France will live stream on France.TV . This is a free French-language option that you just need to make an account to use.

How to watch Tour de France in Australia

The Tour de France live streams are free on SBS in Australia. This is another English-language streaming option that only requires you to create a free account to watch. 

How to watch Tour de France in the US

All stages of the Tour de France will live stream on Peacock in the US. Occasionally, the race will be simulcast on NBC, including stages 8, 14, and 20. Peacock subscriptions start at $5.99 a month and will also cover you for the Olympics, which begin later in July.

Peacock is a convenient streaming source for hit NBC TV shows, Universal movies, and select sports like Sunday Night Football. Prices start at just $6 a month, with additional discounts on annual plans.

How to watch Tour de France from anywhere

You can still access the free streams via VPN if you aren't in the UK, France, Australia, or any of the options outlined above during the race. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs allow people to temporarily change their device's virtual location so that they can access their usual websites from anywhere. VPNs are especially popular among people looking to boost their online privacy and keep up with all their apps while abroad.

Our go-to recommendation is ExpressVPN since it's beginner-friendly and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Check out our ExpressVPN review for additional details, and keep reading to learn how to use a VPN.

With its consistent performance, reliable security, and expansive global streaming features, ExpressVPN is the best VPN out there, excelling in every spec and offering many advanced features that makes it exceptional. Better yet, you can save up to 49% and get an extra three months for free today.

How to watch Tour de France with a VPN

• Sign up for a VPN if you don't already have one.
• Install it on the device you're using to watch the race.
• Turn it on and set it to the location of the streaming service.
• Go to  ITVX (UK) , France.TV (France)  or SBS (Australia) and create a login if necessary.
• Enjoy the Tour de France.

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

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