Tour de France: Five most bizarre crashes in race's history including Chris Froome's Mont Ventoux jog and Tony Martin's disastrous collision with sign
Published 24/07/2025 at 15:08 GMT+1
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Moments before Stage 18 of the Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) was involved in a bizarre crash with a Visma-Lease a Bike team car. The incident, which Pogacar thankfully emerged from unscathed, had us consider some other bizarre crashes over the years. Our list includes Tony Martin's disastrous collision with a fan, as well as Chris Froome jogging up Mont Ventoux after a crash.
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Video credit: TNT Sports
Moments before Stage 18 of the Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) was involved in a bizarre crash with a Visma-Lease a Bike team car.
While making his way to sign-on ahead of Thursday’s queen stage, Pogacar collided into the car that had stopped abruptly in front of him.
Thankfully, the 26-year-old Slovenian emerged from the incident unscathed and was able to race.
But the incident did have us thinking about some of the stranger Tour de France crashes over the years. Here are the ones we came up with.
Froome runs up Mont Ventoux after crash
Back in 2016, Britain’s Chris Froome crashed with Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema just over one kilometre from the finish on Mont Ventoux.
With his bike damaged and the team car too far back, Froome set off up the hill on foot as he waited for a replacement.
He would not have been able to cross the line this way, with cycling’s governing body UCI stating that a cyclist can only finish a race on foot if they have a bike with them.
After jogging for around 45 seconds, Froome used a neutral service bike before switching to a third bike from the Team Sky car around 200m later, eventually crossing the line shaking his head.
Froome was ultimately given the same time as Mollema, who had immediately managed to remount his bike after the crash.
Martin’s spectator collision causes pile on
In 2021, a French woman was fined €1,200 (£1,040) after causing a huge crash in Stage 1 of the Tour de France by waving a cardboard sign into Jumbo-Visma rider Tony Martin’s path.
With 45km of the race remaining, a woman’s cardboard sign clipped Martin, who fell to the ground and caused dozens of other riders to follow suit.
Footage showed that the woman had been looking away from the oncoming peloton and was holding her sign too far into the road.
Two riders had to pull out of the 2021 Tour as a result of the crash, including Spain’s Marc Soler, who remarkably still finished the stage despite fracturing both of his arms in the incident.
Armstrong rides through field to avoid crash
During Stage 9 of the 2003 Tour de France, second-placed Joseba Beloki looked to put pressure on Lance Armstrong on the descent towards the Puy de Dome.
But the Spaniard, who was looking to close a 40-second gap on the American, ended up falling into the tarmac, and in turn, forcing Armstrong off the road.
The Texan, who avoided Beloki’s wheel by a yard, somehow managed to stay upright while cycling onto a field.
Armstrong cycled through the field, cutting off an entire hairpin bend, before carrying his bike up a small bank to reach the road and remounting to continue the race.
Inflatable marker falls to hold up entire race
In Stage 7 of the 2016 Tour de France, Adam Yates was trying to open up a gap between himself and other riders in the hope of claiming the white jersey, awarded to the best young rider.
But as Yates approached the final stage of the race, an enormous inflatable arch that signalled that the rider was one kilometre from the finish line collapsed on top of the Briton, causing him to crash, and holding up all the riders behind him.
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Yates subsequently got back on his bike and made it to the finish line, with all the affected riders given an adjusted time.
It was later discovered that a fan had caught his belt in the cable linking the arch to a generator. It subsequently deflated to obstruct the riders.
Marcus Burghardt collides with dog
Marcus Burghardt collided with a dog during Stage 9 of the Tour de France back in 2007.
The rider was sent flying over his handlebars 50km into the race when an unruly dog suddenly appeared in the middle of the road, having seemingly been let off its leash by its owner.
Though the bike appeared damaged, neither the rider nor the dog were hurt in the incident.
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