Tour de France HALTED after riders ‘pepper-sprayed’ in skirmish with police AND protesters

Chaos erupted around 30km into the day’s racing after a group of protesters appeared to try and disrupt the peloton by throwing hay bales onto the road.

Police attempted to control the situation by driving the group, who are reportedly French farmers, away from the road using pepper spray.

However, in the act of spraying the noxious gas, the policeman inadvertently affected many of the riders cycling past, bringing the race to a standstill as the cyclists sought treatment for the painful affliction.

The race was stopped for more than 20 minutes while the situation was brought under control, with race director Christian Prudhomme working to ensure the safety of the riders.

Thankfully, the stage was able to resume shortly afterwards when it was established that the riders had been attacked accidentally.

Speaking on ITV 4, Matt White, sporting director for Mitchelton-Scott, claimed the riders had no idea they would come across the protest until it was too late.

“We were informed of the protest maybe 30 seconds before we actually got there,” he said.

“It looked like the protesters had made a bit of a late ambush to try and stop the race. We got the information over the race radio of the type of protest that the boys had to ride through.

“When we got there, we obviously saw some very aggressive farmers but I’m not actually sure what they were protesting.

“It looks like the pepper spray has been used, we’re hearing, by the police. I don’t know exact numbers [of riders affected] but pepper spray is quite strong and so when the riders were riding through it, it did blow back in their faces.

When asked if the riders were aware that the incident had been caused by a clumsy policeman, rather than a deliberate attack, White replied: “I think a lot of the guys are just focused on the racing, to be honest.”

Today’s race is likely to be a pivotal one in the shaping of the general classification, taking the riders on a 218km slog into the Pyrenees.

Britain’s Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome, both Team Sky riders, currently occupy first and second position in the race while Dutch star Tom Dumoulin sits in third, one minute 50 seconds off the yellow jersey.