Special envoy to the Puy de Dôme
The Tour de France peloton has been chased by a black cat for twenty-four hours. On Saturday, the leader of the TotalEnergies team, Steff Cras, was forced to retire, seriously injured after being destabilized by a careless spectator and slightly too advanced on the road. 13th in the general classification, the climber had expressed his anger on social networks, deploring the public’s lack of respect for the peloton.
A few hours later, shortly after the start of the 9th stage towards the Puy de Dôme, Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) also went to the mat, victim of an incident caused by the public. By the side of the road, an individual had made a banner with jerseys from Raymond Poulidor, to whom the Tour de France paid tribute this Sunday. But as the peloton passed, the clothesline on which the tunics held broke and one of the jerseys snagged the handlebars of the unfortunate Lilian Calmejane, hooked like a trapped fish.
Calmejane fortunately got up quickly, first giving the spectator an ironic thumb before cursing him. The man, who had no intention of harming the runners by waving his banner, picked up his jerseys, confused. The rider, he threw one of the tunics hanging from the front of his bike in the face of his unfortunate executioner, before getting back in the saddle and finding his place in the peloton launched at high speed towards Clermont Ferrand.
Lilan Calmejane had already had the opportunity to rant at the start of the Tour de France when oblivious spectators had thrown nails on the road.
