On the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Sunday, three of defending champion Jonas Vingegaard's teammates crashed when a spectator tried to take a selfie, provoking a huge pile-up. Nathan van Hooydonck crashed violently 129 kilometers from the finish line, together with Sepp Kuss and Dylan van Baarle, who were both thrown off balance by the spectator’s antics. Before making contact with the American rider, the footage appeared to show the fan reaching out their arm and holding a mobile phone.
Eurosport’s commentator Dan Lloyd during the live broadcast of the race said, “Someone taking a selfie on the side of the road,”.
“It was one of the Jumbo riders who was clipped by them enough that he lost control … just somebody stepping too far out, trying to take a picture, clipping the riders who are hugging one side of the road to the other, and this is the consequence of that.”
“An arm came out and clipped a shoulder, and down we all came like skittles,” said fellow live commentator Carlton Kirby.
As per the BBC, the person made contact with Sepp Kuss first. The Americans fell first due to the collision, causing others to follow on a narrow section of a road in a domino effect.
The stage resumed again with all three riders getting back on their bikes and pedalling away although Nathan van Hooydonck spent a few minutes more on the ground trying to recover from the crash. Egan Bernal, the 2019 Tour de France champion was also involved in the accident but was able to remount and continue.
Given that this was not the first time a spectator caused a severe crash, several teams urged supporters to be more cautious for the rest of the Tour. A female fan waving a banner for her grandparents forced a stage to be paused in 2021 after colliding with German rider Tony Martin, for which she was eventually fined more than £1,000. Her actions were caught live on camera with the internet coming down with memes on the accident.