A fan who wanted a taste of Tour de France glory looked like he got knocked out on the finish line in Valence.
A random man was knocked from his bike by Tour de France security as he tried to ride the final of stage 17 into Valence.
Photos from the finish show a man in a Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale jersey, riding a road bike with flat pedals. According to eyewitnesses at the finish who spoke with Escape Collective, the rider was wearing a Decathlon team jersey, including numbers stuck on the back. He did not seem to be protesting anything (unlike the course invader on the Toulouse stage).
As the man made his way down the finishing straight, with the peloton set to arrive within one or two minutes, the police car that normally rides just ahead of race director Christian Prudhomme’s race vehicle pulled alongside the rider trying to tell him to stop. Obviously, stopping the car would have proved an obstacle to an onrushing peloton, so it couldn’t take immediate action.
Instead, the next line of defence was ASO’s head of the finish line area, Stéphane Boury, who rugby tackled the Toulouse protestor last week.
Also cautious, he stepped aside at the last moment, slapping the rider on the back as he ducked for cover.
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