It was the selfie that nearly brought the Tour de France to a screeching halt.
A fan snap a picture clipped American Sepp Kuss causing him to crash during the 15th stage of the famed cycling race on Sunday.
Kuss immediately went down after the spectator’s arm hit his handlebars and that caused a number of riders behind him to crash as well, with even more being delayed because of the incident.
Kuss and the others were not hurt and the race continued on.
Dutch cyclist Wout Poels won the stage, which was the first stage win of his career.
“There was a narrowing in the town and a spectator in the road, and I guess he just clipped my handlebars,” Kuss told the BBC. “Luckily I’m OK and hopefully the other guys in the crash are all right. It’s not ideal.
“I think it’s fatigue. It’s been such a hard race and everybody is a bit tired. You lose a bit of alertness and there’s always things out of your control as well.”
A replay of the crash showed a fan in a white hat had their arm extended into the path of the riders while holding his phone to capture an image.
After the stage was completed several race teams took to Twitter to ask fans to be a bit more cautious while they’re out enjoying some of the sport’s best athletes competing on its biggest stage.
Team Jumbo-Visma wrote on its Twitter account: “Please be always aware when watching cycling at the side of the road.”
Another team, INEOS Grenadiers team, had one of their racers involved in the crash and asked the public to be more aware.
“If you are spectating at this amazing event, please give the riders room to race,” they tweeted.
Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard told also addressed what happened with reporters.
“Act nice on the side of the road,” said Vingegaard, who was not impacted by the fan-created crash. “Don’t get on the road, don’t punch the riders. Be there and watch the race. You don’t have to get on the road or pour beer on us or whatever. Just have fun watching the race instead of doing some stupid things like that.”
The crash on Sunday brought back memories of a similar incident that occurred back in 2021 when a spectator holding a sign out clipped a rider on the first stage of the Tour de France and caused a massive crash.
Two riders had to step away from the event and eight others were treated for injuries.
The woman who caused the crash eventually turned herself in to French authorities and was convicted in court of reckless endangerment and involuntarily causing injuries.
