French police on Sunday were still looking for the spectator who sent a large part of the Tour de France peloton crashing in the opening stage amid calls for fans to behave on the side of the road.
On Saturday, Tony Martin was sent tumbling when he rode straight into a cardboard sign being held out by a fan looking the other way at a television camera, creating chaos with 47 kilometres left of the stage.
"The Landerneau police are investigating and we haven't heard back from them yet," Tour deputy director Pierre-Yves Thouault said after organisers ASO filed a lawsuit against the unidentified spectator.
"We are going to repeat our calls for fans to behave time and again, through the police on the side of the road and our social network," Thouault added.
"Most of the fans are peaceful but I want to stress that you come see the Tour, you don't take selfies, you keep your kids close to you."
Israel-Start Up Nation sports manager Rik Verbrugghe said that while riders enjoyed the support of fans, they created an extra stress in the peloton.
"It’s a good thing to have all those fans on the side of the road but it brings extra stress, extra danger," he told reporters.
"We saw also the first crash was because of a fan. Most of the time the fans make it pretty dangerous because they make the road narrower. But it’s part of the game, that’s what makes cycling so exciting and so beautiful."
Martin, one of dozens of riders to hit the ground on Saturday, urged the fans to be more respectful.
"This message is for the people who think that the Tour de France is a circus, for the people who risk everything for a selfie with a 50 kph fast peloton... please respect the riders and the Tour de France," the German wrote on Instagram.
"Use your head or stay home!"
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
MATCH INFO
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The specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: nine-speed
Power: 542bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: Dh848,000
On sale: now
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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