A political protestor was tackled and pushed off the finish line area of stage 11 in Toulouse by a Tour de France staffer just seconds before the two race leaders pushed across the line in a furious sprint.
Most eyes were focused on a breakaway duo of Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Mauro Schmid (AlUla-Jayco) as they raced along the far left of Boulevard de Strasbourg, where Abrahamsen narrowly won the finale of the 156.8km stage.
As the two hit full stride side-by-side with under 100 metres to go, a lone individual clad in a t-shirt and shorts appeared on the same section of road and began running on the opposite side of the course towards the finish line. The individual was seen taking off his white T-shirt to reveal another white T-shirt underneath, with an anti-Israel message written in English, "Israel out of the Tour".
The protestor was intercepted quickly and pushed across the side barriers off the course by the Tour's manager for stage finishes, Stéphane Boury, who was identified by multiple news outlets.
Boury ran from the direction of the finish line where all the chaos was caught briefly by TV cameras, trained on the sprint finish. He wrapped his arms around the individual and pushed him over the barriers, opposite the side of where the sprint finish developed.
Several members of the riot control forces with French National Police, Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité or CRS, then took over by handcuffing the individual and placing him in a police van, Le Parisien reporting the suspect was "arrested by the police".
The French news outlet also said the individual shouted as he was taken into custody, "Israel on the Tour, the Tour is complicit".
One of the teams in the Tour de France is Israel-Premier Tech, which could have been a target for the protestor, but this was not confirmed.
The Israel-Premier Tech team began in 2014 as Israel Cycling Academy, and competed in their first Grand Tour in 2018, which they received a wildcard entry with the start of the Giro d'Italia for the start in Israel. The team has been a target for political protestors in past years, and two years ago, in a move for safety, the riders trained in the off-season in generic apparel rather than team-issued kits.
This year the team was escorted by police throughout the three weeks of the Giro d'Italia as an extra security measure. At the Tour de France, reporters on the ground for Cyclingnews noted the team have been fully guarded by armed officers.
The incident on Wednesday in Toulouse did not appear to have any impact with any of the teams at the race. The highest-placed rider to cross the finish for Israel-Premier Tech in Toulouse was Joe Blackmore in 50th place.
It was not clear if any spectators or bystanders were injured when the protester was pushed over the barriers and taken into police custody.
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