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In a chaotic climax to stage 11 of the Tour de France in Toulouse, Tadej Pogacar crashed at speed before remounting to finish, an anti-Israel protester ran on to the finish line, and the Norwegian Uno-X team’s Jonas Abrahamsen took his first Grand Tour stage win.
As Abrahamsen sprinted towards the finish with his final breakaway companion, Mauro Schmid, a male protester, wearing a white T-shirt bearing the slogan “Israel out of the Tour”, jumped the barriers and ran on to the road, before being rugby-tackled by a Tour official, Stephane Boury.
The man was understood to be shouting in French: “Israel out of the Tour, the Tour is complicit.” He was arrested and is expected to be charged with public order offences.
In a statement, the Israel-Premier Tech team, who are competing in the race, said: “Israel-Premier Tech respects everyone’s right to free speech which includes the right to protest. However, the team absolutely condemns any protests or actions of individuals that interfere with racing at the Tour de France or threaten the safety of the entire peloton.”
The team has been surrounded by a significant armed police presence since the race started in Lille on 5 July. “The security measures afforded to the team during the Tour de France are the directive of [race organisers] ASO and relevant French police departments,” the statement read. “The team cooperates fully with the security protocols outlined by the race and appreciates the significant efforts made by all parties to ensure team members’ safety at the race.”
Pogacar’s crash came with 6km to race after he touched the rear wheel of Abrahamsen’s teammate Tobias Johannessen and crashed on his left side, before sliding into the kerb. “I’m a bit beaten up, but we’ve been through worse days,” Pogacar said after the finish.
Of the circumstances surrounding his fall, he said: “I think everybody was a bit a bloc. There were attacks from Matteo [Jorgenson] and Jonas Vingegaard, they really put everybody on the limit. Unfortunately one rider decided to follow from left to right side of the road. He didn’t see me and he just completely cut me off, my front wheel.
“Luckily, I just have a little bit of skin off. I was scared when I saw the sidewalk that I was going [to hit] my head directly to the sidewalk, but luckily my skin is tough and stopped me before the sidewalk.”
The defending champion was quickly back on his feet but, after struggling to rethread his dropped chain, was in danger of losing time in the overall standings.
However, the group of main favourites that he had been riding with, including the race leader Ben Healy, key rivals Remco Evenepoel and Vingegaard, slowed their pace in the closing kilometres and waited for the Slovenian to rejoin.
“Thanks to the peloton in front,” Pogacar said. “They actually waited. Obviously the race was more or less over back there, but still, they could take time – maybe not take too much time – but I would need to go really deep to come back like this. Really big respect to everybody in front.”
Pogacar finished the stage with blood on his left arm, and scuffing on his hip and shoulder. He has already lost a key teammate, Joao Almeida, who was forced to abandon the Tour after crashing on the stage to Mur de Bretagne.
“Tomorrow is a big day,” the defending champion said of the first high-altitude finish at Hautacam in the Hautes-Pyrénées on Thursday. “We’ll see how I recover. Normally the day after a crash you’re never at the best, but I will give my best and we’ll see. I think we’re ready as a team for Hautacam.”
“A crash makes you worry because you never know,” Pogacar’s team manager, Mauro Gianetti, who also described his rider as “angry”, said. “It could be an easy crash, or a big crash. Fortunately that one even though it was quite high speed, was not that damaging for Tadej himself.”
There is little doubt however that Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a bike team will be buoyed by the troubles befalling the champion. In the aftermath of the loss of Almeida, the last thing Pogacar needs is to be handicapped on a daunting climb on which his Danish rival sealed Tour victory over him in 2022.
