Riders were temporarily immobilized by race regulators, right, due to protest action on the race route by environmental protestors during the 10th stage of the 109th edition of the Tour de France, on July 12.MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP/Getty Images
The 10th stage of the Tour de France was halted for 10 minutes on Tuesday after half a dozen climate activists tried to stop riders on the road before being pulled out by police and a senior organizers’ official.
The activists, one of them wearing a T-shirt saying “We have 989 days left,” sat on the road some 36 kilometres from the finish in Megeve, a Reuters witness said.
The activists were pulled off the road by police, helped by Tour organizers’ Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) general director Yann Le Moenner.
ASO declined to comment on that specific incident when contacted by Reuters.
Later, Tour director Christian Prudhomme said: “These things (protests) happen, it’s the ransom of success.”
Stage leader Alberto Bettiol rode through a cloud of pink from a flare before being asked by a race official to get off his bike just before organizers said the stage had been stopped.
Ten minutes later, race director Christian Prudhomme ordered racing to resume.
“Since the government doesn’t care about the climate crisis, we need to come and take over the Tour de France to refocus attention on what matters for our survival,” climate activists movement Derniere Renovation said in a statement.
“We need to make our government react as they lead us to the slaughterhouse.”
At last month’s French Open tennis, an activist from Derniere Renovation interrupted the men’s semi-final between Marin Cilic of Croatia and Norwegian Casper Ruud when she jumped onto the court and tied herself to the net, wearing a T-shirt saying “We have 1,028 days left.”
Some riders condemned the protesters.
“It’s a bit surprising,” Philippe Gilbert told reporters.
“At first I saw some smoke and I thought it’s not very smart because it’s forbidden but then there was more and I thought the worst had happened, like someone, a kid, had been run over by a car.
“It’s a bit disappointing because there are other ways to protest. I hope they will be punished in proportion to their stupidity.”
American Quinn Simmons said: “It’s a bit of a shame. You would think that with so many police at a bike race they’d be able to keep the course clear for us.
“I guess I should be careful what I say about protesting or there might be another incident.”
Simmons was suspended for six weeks by his Trek Segafredo team in 2020 after posting controversial comments in response to a tweet about former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Others, like Slovenia’s yellow jersey holder Tadej Pogacar, were amused.
“In the radio we heard there were some people on the road and we had to stop so we just did that and we heard that the police were taking the guys,” he said. “It was a funny moment.”