Tour de France fan arrested for throwing potato chips at cyclists
Not the chips de pommes de terre!
A fan at the Tour de France has been arrested, with potential further legal action pending after he waited at the end of Stage 15 to throw potato chips in the face of cyclists crossing the line.
The man, seen clearly in TV footage of the race, was wearing a bucket hat, no shirt, and was draped in the Gwenn-ha-du, the flag of Brittany. It’s unclear what his motivations were, though it’s safe to assume the man is a fan of top-ranked French cyclist David Gaudu, who hails from Brittany and is currently 6th in the climber rankings of the Tour.
Race officials were obviously incensed by the action, with television analysts being stunned that anyone would wait for hours at the top of a climb just to throw potato chips in the face of race-leaders Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard who are from Slovakia and Denmark, respectively.
While throwing the chips might just seem dumb, TDF officials aren’t laughing. CPA cycling president Adam Hansen said he would gleefully ensure the fan was arrested — and he did just that.
The @cpacycling will take legal action against this guy with pleasure due to what he did to both @TamauPogi and @VingegaardJonas. This is disrespectful and will not be tolerated. https://t.co/tJpyz09VSU
— Adam Hansen (@HansenAdam) July 13, 2024
As for the athletes: They were just a little confused by it all.
“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,” Vingegaard said after the stage. “Just stay off the road. I don’t understand why you go to a bike race and boo at people.”
Nobody was hurt in the incident, and the chip-throwing didn’t alter the outcome of the stage.