Special envoy to Limoges
The adventure of Stef Crass, the leader of the TotalEnergies team, ended this Saturday in the stage of the Tour de France linking Libourne to Limoges. Thirteenth in the general classification, the Belgian rider had had a superb first week of racing when a spectator who was too advanced on the road got in his way.
Steff Cras first touched the very careless individual before falling a few tens of meters further, probably destabilized by the contact. The climber, who was taking part in his second Tour de France, curled up on the side of the road while waiting for the medical profession. His team confirmed the retirement, the sixth in the 2023 edition, without however specifying the nature of the injury but Cras seemed to be hit in the right arm or shoulder. Earlier in the day Mark Cavendish had also thrown in the towel, also hit in the shoulder after a fall.
This misadventure inevitably recalls that which occurred during the Tour de France 2021 when a spectator holding a sign with her back to the peloton which was arriving at high speed behind her in Brittany was hit head-on by the German Tony Martin, the first to fall. The latter had dragged down many other cyclists in his fall. Several riders had been forced to retire, including the German Jasha Sütterlin (DSM) and the Spaniard Marc Soler (Movistar).
