
Spectator run over by INEOS team car during Tour de France
The incident occurred during the 14th stage of the race around 200 metres from the summit of the Col de Peyresourde climb.
Ineos rider, Thymen Arensman, was the solo leader during the tough mountain stage, while his teammate, Carlos Rodriguez, was at the front of the group behind.
Ineos' red team car was tracking Rodriguez's group and a spectator, who was dressed in yellow trousers and a bright green jacket, was stood in the road filming the action with their phone.
However, the spectator stood still while filming the riders and was knocked to the ground after being struck by the side of the car, which immediately stopped following the collision.
'It's always very complicated on these passes,' said RMC Sport's Tour de France analyst Jerome Coppel. More Trending
'There are people on both sides of the road, which isn't very wide. The team directors have to get back up and ensure safety in case the leading rider gets a puncture.
'They try to get back up, and the counter group won't let them pass. There isn't enough space, and sometimes, unfortunately, we see this kind of thing. The driver risks being penalised.'
Coppel, who competed in six Tour de France races, added: 'Having been in the car behind the peloton, it's really complicated when you have to move up the line.'
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
MORE: Belgian ticket inspector given warning for using 'bonjour' in Dutch-speaking region
MORE: Boy, 6, 'kills newborn baby' after being left alone on maternity ward
MORE: Inmate escapes prison by hiding in pal's laundry bag – but it didn't last long
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Scotsman
18 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Readers' Letters: Edinburgh's Tour de France ‘Grand Depart' could be a 'Grande Débâcle'
A reader fears for Tour de France riders forced to cope with Edinburgh's pot-holed roads at 2027's Grand Depart Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... With the Tour de France finishing this Sunday, it would be interesting to find out what Edinburgh councillors intend to do about the state of the city's roads for Le Grand Depart in 2027 otherwise there will be a lot of buckled wheels, or worse, due to the all-prevailing potholes. Never mind road bikes or time trial bikes – they'll all be boneshakers! Will it be La Grande Débâcle? Cars can sometimes avoid the potholes if careful, but not always, such is the state of the roads. Travelling by bus is another matter. I like to read when on the bus but there are stretches of road where this is nigh on impossible due to the shaking. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There seems to be money for a multitude of cycle lanes but not for roads. And aren't bus lanes for cyclists too? Riders' cycles cast shadows on the road as they tackled yesterday's 16th stage of this year's Tour de France, 171.5km between Montpellier and Mont Ventoux in southern France (Picture: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty) James D Paterson, Edinburgh Training collars Scotland faces a choice: uphold evidence-led animal welfare, or surrender to ideology. The delay in banning so-called 'electric shock collars' is not a 'farce' as it has been described – it is restraint in the face of immense political pressure and lobby-driven pseudoscience. The Association of Responsible Dog Owners represents thousands of dog owners and professionals across the UK. We categorically reject the misrepresentation of electronic training collars (ETCs) as abusive. Our position is grounded in data, law, and lived experience. In more than 2,500 reports submitted through our five-year user survey 98.6 per cent of users reported no negative effects from ETC use, and 93 per cent stated that the inclusion of the tool helped resolve their dog's problem behaviour. This is not conjecture. It is the lived experience of real, animal-loving people. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Contrast this with the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC), whose 2023 recommendation to ban ETCs fails to declare conflicts of interest: seven of its 11 members are directly linked to organisations already lobbying against these tools. ETCs are not quick-fix substitutes for considered and effective training. They are often the only effective means of interrupting deeply ingrained behaviours like predation, aggression, and compulsions. The welfare calculus is simple: how many dogs have been harmed by a responsibly used e-collar in Scotland in the past seven years, versus how many livestock animals have been mauled, maimed, or killed by out-of-control dogs? In a formal submission to the government, both the Kennel Club and the British Veterinary Association admitted to having no evidence of abuse or harm caused to a single dog in Scotland. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Policymakers must not ignore the weight of international research—including studies showing that e-collars used in accordance with best practices cause no significant distress and are often more effective than treat-only methods for high-stakes behaviourslike recall when chasing and livestock avoidance. The world is crying out for non-lethal, evidence-based solutions to dog predation. Scottish ministers hold one in the palm of their hands. To discard it for the sake of optics or ideology would be a profound betrayal – not only of the responsible people who rely on these tools, but of the very animals this debate claims to protect. James Penrith, Association of Responsible Dog Owners Pension minefield Once again, the Westminster Labour Government is going after Pensioners with the announcement of a review of the State Pension Age. The last State Pension age review took place in 2023 and is scheduled to take place every six years, which would mean a further review in 2029, yet the Government are in a hurry once again. The current state of affairs regarding state pension age currently stands at age 66, with an increase to 67 planned for the next two years with further increases to follow to 68 in the next 20 years. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Continuing to raise the state pension age is all very well for those who have been fortunate enough to work in dry and heated environment where the heaviest load lifted is a pen. However, for those working and keeping the infrastructure of the country operating in our harsh winters or very hot sunny days (more to follow), lifting heavy loads, then having to work till 68 and above is an outrage. Pensions are a minefield and the introduction in 2012 of auto-enrolment certainly brought the future of the State Pension as we know it, into question, begging the question, has the State Pension got a future. And while we are on the issue of State Pensions and just in case the Labour Government are in any doubt, WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women are still waiting for the justice, which incidentally the Parliamentary Ombudsman recommended. Catriona C Clark, Banknock, Falkirk Joking apart The long-running 'Funniest Joke of the Fringe' award is to be scrapped this year. Is this because no matter what the joke, someone will be offended? Or could it be that the best joke of the lot is our current Labour government so no other contenders can come close, except for our very own SNP government? Gerald Edwards, Glasgow Tariffs trap The latest meeting of the 'Coalition of the Willing' was notable for the first-time attendance of President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, and Senators Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham. The involvement of these politicians is concerning because it suggests that Washington's primary objective is not to discuss further aid to Kyiv, but rather to advance US economic interests. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Recently, Lindsey Graham introduced a bill in Congress that would impose tariffs of up to 500 per cent on goods imported from countries that have a strong trade relationship with Russia. There is a risk that, under the pretext of discussing the future of Ukraine, Graham was trying to draw the coalition members into a tariff war. However, it's important to remember that Donald Trump hasn't made any decisions about the bill yet. It's possible that Graham could just be luring European countries into a trap only to abandon them later in this tariff war. This scenario is dangerous because it could further strain relations between Europe, India, and China. The participation of London and Brussels in the tariff war will make them implacable enemies of Beijing and New Delhi. This leaves Europe without alternative economic allies and makes it dependent on Washington. Henry Byers, Glasgow Trump must act Your editorial (22 July) is highly critical of Israel and rightly so. Benjamin Netanyahu and his gang are responsible for war crimes. Professor Nick Maynard, an Oxford surgeon currently working at the Nasser hospital in Gaza, has described the most awful scenes he encounters there daily. Civilians including children are being brought in, the victim of Israeli snipers as they scramble for food at the American-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's food distribution centres, where they are corralled through tall wire fences. He and other surgeons have noticed a pattern which makes this even more reprehensible: on different days the snipers target different parts of the body. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Prof Maynard also describes the horrendous malnutrition affecting Palestinians because of Israel's restriction on supplies entering Gaza. 'The malnutrition I have seen here is indescribably bad,' he says. UNICEF reports that in May 2025 more than 5,000 children were treated for acute malnutrition,making the total number in that category between January and May over 16,000. Separately the BBC has carried out a thorough and detailed survey of the controlled demolition of thousands of buildings throughout Gaza by Israel, supplying photographs showing bulldozers clearing the rubble after the explosions and levelling once thriving neighbourhoods. They have released before and after satellite images which shows exactly the crimes against international law the Netanyahu regime is committing. And just as the US supplies planes, bombs and missiles for air attacks on Gaza so it supplies bulldozers to demolish not only damaged buildings but perfectly intact ones as well. The BBC reports that last week America supplied 'dozens' of Caterpillar D9 bulldozers for that purpose. Without American support Netanyahu's regime would collapse. Preseident Trump must act. William Loneskie, Lauder, Scottish Borders Enemy's friends It's about time Israel's assistance to Argentina during the Falklands War was made more widely known. Via Peru, Israel supplied aircraft, missiles and other lethal weapons to the Argentinians. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Israeli Prime Minister at the time was Menachim Begin, a former Irgun terrorist and no friend of Britain. Now Benjamin Netanyahu is constantly grovelling and wheedling to Donald Trump for more fiscal and military assistance. In the Falklands War, 255 British military personnel died. Seven Royal and Merchant Navy ships were sunk. Should we be assisting Israel in any way now? Doug Morrison, Tenterden Kent Careful now As Israel sends tanks and snipers to attack civilians queueing for food, David Lammy warns that Israel is 'tarnishing' its reputation. Careful, David, don't overdo it. Graham M McLeod, Kinross, Perth & Kinross Vested interests Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Eric Knight, chief executive of the Knight Vinke Energy Transition Fund, a long-term shareholder of SSE plc, is somewhat out of touch, urging readers 'Don't listen to Donald Trump' (Scotsman, 21 July). In fact, the Scottish Government's wind farm fiasco is so despised most Scots actually agree with Donald Trump. Let's have no more nonsense from the vested interests of the wind industry! George Herraghty, Lhanbryde, Moray Write to The Scotsman


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Tour de France: Pogacar resists Vingegaard on Ventoux as Paret-Peintre claims stage 16
The Tour de France debutant Valentin Paret-Peintre banished the bitter memories of Julian Alaphilippe's misplaced celebrations in Carcassonne on Sunday by becoming the fifth French rider to win at the summit of Mont Ventoux. For the French, such success on the Giant of Provence, the first in the Tour in 23 years, justified huge celebration and plenty of tears. Paret-Peintre's impressive victory came at the expense of the indefatigable Ben Healy, who was within a hair's breadth of taking his second stage win of the Tour. It was Paret-Peintre's second Grand Tour win, after his stage victory in the 2024 Giro. 'This morning I didn't think this was possible, because I expected [Tadej] Pogacar to want to win,' he said. Yet the absence of his Soudal Quick-Step team leader, Remco Evenepoel, who abandoned the Tour in the Pyrenees, opened a door of opportunity for the climber from the Haute-Savoie. 'I could see that I wasn't strong enough to drop Healy in the finale,' he said, of his team's fourth stage win in this year's race, 'so I focused on trying to beat him in the sprint.' But while Healy and Paret-Peintre were playing out the final moments of a sparring match that had started much further down the mountain, Jonas Vingegaard was keeping his promise to attack the race leader Pogacar. Just 48 hours after Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike team had been lambasted for their lack of cohesion and accused of disloyalty towards the two-time champion by some critics, they were transformed into a cohesive well-drilled unit, working hard to support his efforts to dislodge Pogacar. Sepp Kuss, Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot put in lengthy turns pacemaking their leader on the never-ending climb, in the hope of finally cracking Pogacar. 'The team did really amazing today,' Vingegaard said. 'Everybody worked, there was real commitment from everyone.' But the Dane's best efforts, which saw him make several attacks on his rival, came to nothing. On the Ventoux's cruel final bend, perhaps the worst on the climb, the Slovenian again opened up a gap, sneaking clear to increase his overall lead by another couple of seconds. 'He followed me every time he attacked and I followed him,' Vingegaard said after the stage. 'I don't know if I could see any weaknesses today but at least, how good I felt gives me motivation. I will keep trying. 'I was feeling very good, so I'm happy. I didn't get any time, but I take a lot of motivation from it.' Yet insult was added to injury when Vingegaard collided with a photographer on the Ventoux summit's cramped finish line. 'A photographer stepped right in front of me,' he said. 'I don't know what he was doing. I went down. People who are working on the finish line need to be more careful.' However hard he tries, he cannot find any weaknesses in Pogacar's armour. Vingegaard's first attacks, in the forested section of the climb, splintered the main peloton and took him across to his teammate Benoot. For a fleeting moment and for perhaps the first time in this Tour, Pogacar initially showed signs of stress. At Chalet Reynard however, 6km from the top, the pair were still inseparable, although Vingegaard had one more card to play. As they bridged up to another of his teammates, Victor Campenaerts, he had another ally to pace him into the decisive kilometres. But the Dane's next move, with 4km to race, once more failed to dislodge the race leader. The pair's blistering times on Ventoux shattered all precedents. The past record, set by Spain's Iban Mayo in a 2004 time trial, was 55 minutes and 51 seconds. Pogacar beat that mark by a minute and 20 seconds, with Vingegaard just two seconds slower. Afterwards Pogacar, asked what his limits were, appeared offended by the question. 'I don't think we could ride much faster,' he said. 'Jonas and his team did very good pacing. On our aero bikes we go pretty fast, maybe we pick up a couple of seconds. I don't know. What do you want?' He maintained too that, despite appearances, he was no Superman. 'I'm definitely not Superman. I was born in Ljubljana. Today was an epic climb to do and we brought down the gap quite fast. We saw the winners in the last 800 metres, but even for Superman I don't think it would have been possible to catch them.' There were some other shifts in the overall standings, although Kelso's Oscar Onley clung on and remains stubbornly in fourth place overall, after finishing 14th on the stage. But Primoz Roglic, ninth on the Ventoux, is moving up the standings and has now climbed into the top five, while the unflagging Healy remains in the Tour's top 10, in ninth place overall.


South Wales Guardian
4 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Stephen Bunting battles past Gary Anderson in World Matchplay thriller
It took a while for both players to shift into a gear as doubles proved troublesome for the pair throughout the match, which went beyond the allotted 21 legs. The contest went back and forth but Bunting, who also missed double 12 for a nine-darter, chalked off five straight legs to make it 9-6 and it looked like he would go on to seal a comfortable victory. 🗣️| 'Can you sum up your performance with a sound…'@sbunting180 got the job done against Gary Anderson in the end and provided us with a classic reaction in the aftermath…@OfficialPDC — Betfred (@Betfred) July 22, 2025 However, Anderson survived match darts as he fought back to make it a level game but Bunting finally got the job done to win by two clear legs and seal the win. Both players averaged less than 30 per cent on checkouts which made for darting drama and Bunting admitted to being nervous on stage. After the match, he told Sky Sports: 'He's a quality operator. One of the best players to grace the stage and I have nothing but respect for Gary Anderson, and what a win in my career. 'I felt nervous anyway. I've got (son) Theo with me tonight, Toby, the missus, but we're through and I can relax now. 'I feel great and playing the best darts of my life and enjoying being in Blackpool – the fans have been incredible.' James Wade is red hot in Blackpool… 🔥 A 102 average and some brilliant finishing as he beats Wessel Nijman! 📺 | R2 — PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) July 22, 2025 James Wade produced a vintage performance as he swept Matchplay debutant Wessel Nijman aside in an 11-5 win. There was nothing to separate the two players through the opening six legs but Wade jumped all over the young Dutchman's mistakes as he started to race clear. The game started to turn when Wade brilliantly hit back-to-back bullseye finishes to go 8-4 up with his third ton-plus finish of the match. That was in the middle of five straight legs that Wade put together to go within a leg of victory and the Machine pinned double tops to wrap up an impressive win. Gian van Veen reeled off seven straight legs on his way to a thumping 11-5 victory over Danny Noppert. The Winter Gardens in all its glory 😍 — PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) July 22, 2025 Noppert started on fire and jumped 2-0 ahead but his Dutch compatriot shifted into top gear and went into the second break with a 7-3 lead which Noppert could not bounce back from. Van Veen, who surprisingly knocked out Luke Humphries in the first round, threw four 180s and averaged just under 95 to book his spot in the quarter-finals. Jonny Clayton continued his good run of form with an 11-8 win over Mike de Decker. The Ferret threw nine 180s and never went behind in the contest but held off a couple of De Decker fightbacks to see him through safely to the quarter-finals.