Tour de France stage finishes are chaotic at the best of times.
They usually consist of thousands of people, penned in by barriers and surly looking police officers on narrow pavements, swarming for what they assume is the best spot (most of the time, they’re wrong). They’re a blurry, intoxicating mass of colour, noise, and movement.
But today’s finish in Toulouse was more chaotic than most.
At first, the chaos was confined to the racing. The gasp that reverberated along the finishing straight when Tadej Pogačar hit the deck. The cries of ‘Go Mathieu’ as Van der Poel tried in vain to catch Mauro Schmid and the victor Jonas Abrahamsen.
And then, as the leading pair charged towards the line, audible dismay, shock, and angry shouts of ‘no!’ when a man appeared just metres away from the riders, on the road, running.
Anti-Israel protester runs onto road during sprint finish, 2025 Tour de France, stage 11, Toulouse (credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
I glanced up at the big screen, in time to see a white-shirted ASO staff member charge towards the man and, with the force and finesse of a WWF wrestler, throw him into the advertising boards.
Quickly deciding to delay finding out who won the sprint for fourth – it was Arnaud De Lie, it turned out, proving he’s still here to race – I instead made my way through the throngs of fans to the spot where the course invader was tackled, 50 metres or so from the finish.
There, standing perfectly still, not saying a word, handcuffed, and surrounded by six armed police officers was a long-haired man wearing sunglasses and sporting a plain white t-shirt emblazoned with the handwritten slogan ‘Israel out of the Tour’.
Tour de France stage 11 protester (credit: Ryan Mallon)
The man (who, it was later revealed, is a member of Toulouse’s branch of Extinction Rebellion) is the latest activist to protest the ongoing involvement of the Israel-Premier Tech team, the squad owned by Quebec billionaire Sylvan Adams, in the biggest bike races in the world.
Unlike other cycling teams backed by nation states, Israel is not directly involved in the squad, though Adams has said in the past that he wants to use the project to promote the country, of which he is a dual citizen.
Earlier this year, the Tour Down Under and Giro d’Italia were the subject of protests against Israel-Premier Tech, the Giro one, in Naples, also involving pro-Palestine activists running onto the road, on that occasion in front of a charging peloton, and not a two-up sprint.
This afternoon, as the fans turned their attentions back to the 170-odd riders still making their way down the finishing straight, police surrounded the man for five or so minutes, before eventually leading him away, again through the confused, chaotic masses.
I asked an officer if he could provide any more information. Unsurprisingly, he was not particularly forthcoming.
Tour de France stage 11 protester (credit: Ryan Mallon)
During that long spell of inertia, as the officers decided what to do with their thwarted race invader, the Extinction Rebellion member just stood there, a silent DIY billboard for his cause. The keffiyeh, the symbol of Palestinian culture he was photographed wearing as he leapt over the boards and ran down the finishing straight, was notable by its absence.
At the same time, a handful of metres away from the handcuffed activist – and just inches away from the spectators peering over heads for a glimpse of Healy and Pogačar – lay a woman, flat on her back and unmoving, next to an ambulance and receiving treatment from paramedics for what seemed, to me anyway, like an age.
Again, no one was willing to confirm that these two happenings at the Tour, on the same patch of pavement, were connected. But it’s hard not to assume they were.
I was shocked that I was the only one really paying attention, watching what – in my head, anyway – was the story of the Tour’s visit to Toulouse. Some spectators occasionally glanced in the direction of the handcuffed activist or the stricken woman, but mostly their eyes remained glued to the product: the brilliant breakaway win, the drama in the GC battle, the spectacle they had stood for hours in the searing sun to see.
Around half an hour later, podium ceremonies done and dusted, the crowds slowly began to disperse from the finishing area, many of them making their way down to the team buses for a glimpse of some big names and maybe even a selfie or autograph.
Ben Healy, stage 11, 2025 Tour de France (credit: Ryan Mallon)
Today, there were quite a few Irish tricolours awaiting an anecdote-affirming signature. Ben Healy, resplendent in yellow, is flavour of the month, inspiring devotion (and last-minute flight bookings from Dublin) not seen within Irish cycling since the Beatlemania days of Roche, Kelly, Earley, and Kimmage.
For a few minutes, maybe even a few hours, the outside world can puncture the Tour de France’s pristine bubble. But pretty soon the narrative will shift and the race’s attention – just like the fans at the roadside – will turn away from the sobering chaos of reality, and back towards Pogačar, Vingegaard, and the race for the yellow jersey.
I soon spot Tour chief Christian Prudhomme, stood on the road, just past the spot where the protester was tackled into the crowd, laughing and joking with a small batch of VIPs.
He’s done this many times before. Environmental activists gluing themselves to the road? Angry locals throwing tacks? Anti-Israel protesters disrupting sprints? Just keep smiling and shaking hands. What a great day, huh? Right, where’s the car, the next town, the next story?
Chaos follows the Tour. And just like that, the Tour moves on.