Tour De France Boss Unleashes Fury After Fan Trying To Take Selfie Causes Big Crash By Clipping American's Handlebars

The first 15 stages of the 2023 Tour de France have been electric. Not only are the top-two riders separated by just a few seconds, there has been quite a bit of chaos— especially over the weekend!

It started on Saturday with a massive crash that forced multiple competitors to withdraw from the race. Just not Adrien Petit!

Not long thereafter, fans impeded a motorcycle from getting out in front of a crucial attack and forced one of the leaders to pull back.

Fans — rather, one fan — also caused problems during Stage 15 on Sunday. American rider Sepp Kuss, the United States' best hope of a Tour de France title for the foreseeable future, was at the center.

Sepp Kuss of The United States and Team Jumbo-Visma competes climbing to the Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc (1379m) while fans cheer during the stage fifteen of the 110th Tour de France 2023.(Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Fans lined the narrow roads as competitors climbed from Les Gets Les Portes Du Soleil to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, as is standard. Around the 60km mark of the stage, a spectator holding a phone leaned directly into the path of the peloton and tried to take a selfie with the group while it rode by.

In doing so, the fan extended its arm outward and clipped Kuss's handlebars as he passed.

Kuss crashed. He also brought down about 20 other riders with him.

The massive pileup was entirely the fan's fault.

The crash did not directly impact the stage, fortunately. However, Kuss and the others who crashed will be carrying those wounds with them throughout the rest of the race.

Kuss sustained cuts to his elbow and knee in the wreck. Although he was frustrated, there was (surprisingly) some understanding from the American about what happened. The fans are part of what makes the entire Tour de France experience so great.

There was a spectator leaning into the road, I guess. It just happened suddenly and that's part of the Tour, there are a lot of people. Ideally that wouldn't happen, but it's the biggest bike race in the world and a lot of people don't know exactly what's going on.
There was a narrowing in a town. We were just trying to slow down the peloton to let the break go and then just on the side unfortunately, somebody wanted to get a selfie. I didn't really see it coming.

He also downplayed his injuries and how they impacted the rest of his stage.

No, no, luckily the adrenaline got me through the day. I mean you just have to keep going, there's nothing else to do about it. It's inconvenient, but it could have been worse, and I still felt pretty good on the bike.

Others were not as gracious, and understandably so. Kuss rides for team Jumbo-Visma.

Jumo-Visma boss Richard Plugge was pissed. He unleashed his rage in a post-stage interview.

Stay at home if you don't respect the riders. If you don't want to see the race and you only want to make a picture of yourself with the riders in the background, I don't know what this guy was thinking. I would like to make an apology to all of the riders who crashed, be a man now. You were a man then, be a man now and call us and all the riders that crashed, not only our team, other teams, and say I’m sorry. If you're a mature guy then do that.

Enough said! Perhaps Plugge went off on the incident so that Kuss could keep his composure.

Either way, the incident cast an unfortunate shadow on a fantastic Stage 15 of the Tour de France.