The spectator who threw crisps into the faces of Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard on stage 14 of the Tour de France was arrested, according to reports in the French press.
With around 2km to go of Saturday’s stage a man in a yellow hat chucked what appeared to be Bugles from the bag at the two riders, from UAE Team Emirates and Visma-Lease a Bike, respectively.
According to Le Parisien, the fan was arrested for “aggravated violence” and will be questioned on Sunday. According to a witness who spoke to the French newspaper, the man was arrested shortly after his stunt, and taken away in a police car.
"There was quite a bit of booing and someone was throwing chips, I heard also they threw the chips at Tadej and that’s strange to do. Just stay off the road and don’t boo anyone. I don’t understand why you go to a bike race and boo at people, “ Vingegaard said post-stage.
Pogačar won the stage by 39 seconds from Vingegaard, to strengthen his grip on the yellow jersey, despite the potato or maize-based incident.
“It was crisps in the face,” Mauro Gianetti, the UAE team boss, said. “The public is sometimes too excited, and a stupid thing happened. Fortunately, without a big problem, and nothing bad happened.”
However, despite “nothing bad” occurring, the rider’s union, the CPA, announced on Saturday night that legal action would be taken.
Adam Hansen, president of the CPA, said on X (formerly Twitter) that “the CPA will take legal action against this guy with pleasure due to what he did to both Pogačar and Vingegaard. This is disrespectful and will not be tolerated”.
On English-language Eurosport, EF Education-EasyPost’s boss Jonathan Vaughters said: “Are you there to be a cycling fan, do you love the sport? Are you there to race the race or are you there to get on TV doing something stupid. I don’t understand why he’s there.”
Pat McQuaid, the former president of cycling’s governing body, the UCI, wrote on social media: “Disgraceful that the stage today was only barriered [in] the last 1.4km. Does a leading rider have to be brought down by a stupid spectator before they rectify this.”
Lunaire : quand un spectateur balance un paquet de chips en plein visage de Pogacar #LesRP #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/U9v2HZZLCaJuly 13, 2024
