A spectator taking a selfie caused a crash of about 20 riders on stage 15 of the Tour de France.
The stage was won by Dutchman Wout Poels with defending champion Jonas Vingegaard maintaining his 10-second lead on Tadej Pogacar.
Sepp Kuss, Vingegaard’s Team Jumbo-Visma team-mate, had his handlebars knocked by a fan holding out a phone.
Kuss went down with team-mate Nathan van Hooydonck and brought down a large group in the peloton.
All the riders who crashed were able to complete the 179km stage from Les Gets les Portes du Soleil to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc.
Dane Vingegaard was unaffected, while stage winner Poels was in the breakaway several minutes up the road.
‘Please pay attention to the riders’
Shortly after the incident, the official Tour Twitter account posted a slow-motion video of a rider ducking under a spectator’s outstretched arm with the message: “Please pay attention to the riders.”
Team Jumbo-Visma tweeted: “Please be always aware when watching cycling at the side of the road.”
Team Confidis said: “Please be careful. So that the party remains a party for the runners but also for you. You don’t need a cell phone to create mind-blowing memories.”
Ineos Grenadiers said: “If you are spectating at this amazing event, please give the riders room to race.”
One of the race’s worst crashes occurred in the 2021 Tour, when a woman clipped rider Tony Martin on the first stage.
She was ordered to pay a symbolic one euro fine but, after receiving a barrage of abuse, her identity was withheld.
Two riders had to pull out of the Tour, while a further eight were treated for injuries.
Spain’s Marc Soler broke both arms in the crash.
The woman turned herself in to police custody and went to court over the incident, leading Tour director Christian Prudhomme to issue a statement.
“She did something daft; she’s no terrorist,” he said. “We just want people to take care when they come to the Tour and remember they are there to see the champions – and not to get on television.”
‘We’ve seen this before’ – analysis
Matt Warwick, BBC Sport
This is not the first time a spectator has caused such a crash.
Following 2021’s ‘Omi & Opi’ scandal, in which a young woman caused a huge pile-up on stage one of the Tour holding up a message in German to her grandparents, riders have been more wary of fans wanting to get close to the action.
Cycling’s world governing body the UCI introduced a range of measures under the SafeR banner just before this race, which incorporates better assessments of high-speed descents following the death of Gino Mader last month, and more management of crowds.
At the top of the Col de Joux Plane climb on Saturday, Pogacar was held up by motorbikes and penned in by crowds standing inches from their heroes.
Across a season, the list of rider casualties is too long, but road cycling is a unique sport, growing in popularity, which trades on the volatility of competing out in the open.
