Tour de France chaos as police arrest knife-wielding man during cycling event
The incident occurred during the fourth stage of the iconic cycling event, from Amiens to Rouen. Valeurs Actuelles claim a police offer suffered a minor hand injury during the incident.
It's said that officers quickly intervened to neutralise the man, who was 'making threats'.
and Mirror Sport will bring you the very latest updates, pictures and video as soon as possible.
check back regularly for updates on this developing story.
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The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Tour de France 2025: Tim Merlier claims stage nine as Van der Poel bid falls short
Tim Merlier, frustrated 24 hours earlier after a puncture on the run‑in to Laval, won stage nine of the Tour de France in Cavendish City, as Chateauroux was renamed for the day in recognition of Sir Mark's triptych of stage wins in 2008, 2011 and 2021. Another sweltering stage – also the second fastest in the history of the Tour – drew out a two-man breakaway, with Mathieu van der Poel and his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jonas Rickaert joining forces immediately after the start only for Van der Poel to eventually be caught in the final kilometre. But it was a stage too many for João Almeida, Tadej Pogacar's key Team Emirates teammate who, as the Slovenian had feared, abandoned the Tour because of the injuries sustained after crashing on Friday at Mûr-de-Bretagne. Pogacar, the race leader, said: 'There are still two weeks to go and losing a rider today is a little bit to our disadvantage, but I'm pretty confident in my team.' The high temperatures that have settled on the race are to continue on Monday and the first mountain stage, from Ennezat to Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy, which takes in eight classified climbs through the Auvergne. For Oscar Onley the first lengthy climbs will be a sterling test of his resilience as the 22-year-old Scot arrives in the Massif Central in seventh, less than three minutes behind Pogacar. His Picnic–PostNL sports director, Matt Winston, said: 'We want to take Oscar as far as we can in the race, but we also want to do that with no pressure. 'Oscar is one of six riders in this race that have come from our development team and he's done really well in a lot of one-week races. A three-week race is a little bit of an unknown, and maybe in week two or week three we'll see a bit of a drop off, but for now we keep fighting.' Steve Cummings is a past stage winner in the Tour's furnace conditions. The 44-year-old, now sports director at the Jayco AlUla team, won a baking mountain stage to Mende in 2015. 'I rode well in the heat, which is odd because I'm from the Wirral,' Cummings said. 'There's two things: preparation, to make sure you're ready and managing your core temperature in the race. There's 'ice socks'' – tights stuffed with ice cubes, placed between the shoulder blades – 'which is more perceptual than cooling the core temperature, but it makes a difference because it's psychologically beneficial. The theory is that cooling from the inside out is quite beneficial. The challenge operationally is getting a regular flow of cool drinks to the riders.' Cummings also cited ice baths, but added that they do not attract universal approval. 'When I was a rider, there was an ice bath following us around at the Vuelta a España one year, but nobody ever used the thing. Other teams use them every day. We have the ice socks and the vehicles will have fridges with more drinks. Right now, I don't think any team would dare run out of drinks.'
Reuters
8 hours ago
- Reuters
Pogacar loses key teammate Almeida in Tour de France blow
CHATEAUROUX, France, July 13 (Reuters) - Tadej Pogacar's Tour de France hopes suffered a blow on Sunday as the Slovenian's key domestique Joao Almeida withdrew following a crash on Friday. Almeida, 26, who finished fourth in the general classification last year, abandoned after 89km of stage nine, two days after fracturing a rib in a spectacular high-speed crash. The Portuguese rider had come into the race in brilliant form having won the Tour de Suisse, the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour de Romandie earlier this year. "We are really sad that we lost Joao (Almeida) today," Pogacar told reporters on Sunday. "I think it was just too much. I was suffering today on the bike... I cannot imagine him with all the pain, it must be really, really painful." "It's a really big loss. Joao was in a super great shape." Three-time Tour champion Pogacar lamented his teammate's withdrawal a day before the race enters the Massif Central with 4,450 metres of climbing awaiting the peloton on Monday. "It was a luxury to have him in the GC (general classification), he could also do a great result for himself here in the Tour," Pogacar said. "For sure, he would be a big help on the mountains. Now we have to reassess a little bit. We will try to win this Tour for Joao." World champion Pogacar can still count on the support of some good climbers including Adam Yates, who claimed third overall in 2023, Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
Tim Merlier sprints to stage 10 victory in Chateauroux as Tadej Pogacar loses key Tour de France lieutenant
Tim Merlier out-sprinted Jonathan Milan to victory on stage nine of the Tour de France after Mathieu van der Poel almost pulled off an audacious win in Chateauroux. Van der Poel had rolled off the front of the peloton alongside team-mate Jonas Rickaert at the start of the 174km stage from Chinon in what looked a certain suicide mission, but the Dutchman held off the chasing pack until the final few hundred metres. The Alpecin-Deceuninck adventure had forced rival teams to burn their lead-out men in a furious chase through crosswinds in the final 30km of the stage, and with the sprint trains thoroughly depleted the quick men had to fend for themselves at the finale. Saturday's stage winner Milan had good position on the barriers but Merlier went long and the European champion pipped the Italian to the line. "It was really hard," said Merlier, who also won stage three into Dunkirk. "Five minutes (to Van der Poel) is a lot but we tried to chase and also the other teams start to help, the pacing was quite high at the front, but it was hard for all the guys. The bunch was nervous. "In the end we just went all in and I'm happy I can win my second stage here." There has been debate in recent days about the long-term value of flat sprint stages in the Tour, with the fight for UCI points meaning fewer teams can be tempted into breakaways, but this one certainly delivered some drama. Chateauroux, this week dubbed 'Cavendish City' in honour of Sir Mark, who took the first of his Tour-record 35 career stage victories here in 2008, has only ever known sprints in its history in the race, but Van der Poel did his best to break that streak. When he and Rickaert went early, it looked like a play purely for the intermediate sprint points, but they rolled through that line early in the day and just kept going, building a lead of more than five minutes. Even as teams furiously fought for position in the wind behind, the lead still held at 50 seconds with 10 kilometres to go as splits appeared in the peloton. Rickaert fell back with six kilometres left and it became a straight fight between the powerful but shattered Van der Poel and some disorganised lead-out trains behind. It would go the peloton's way, but Van der Poel got at least one wish with Rickaert being named the most combative rider of the day. "We wanted to go for it today because it's his dream to be on the podium of a Tour de France," Van der Poel said. "It's hard not to be able to finish it off but we put up a good show today." There was no change at the top of the general classification, with Tadej Pogacar remaining 54 seconds clear of Remco Evenepoel. Jonas Vingegaard is behind Kevin Vauquelin in fourth, one minute 17 seconds off yellow. However, there was a blow for Pogacar as key lieutenant Joao Almeida abandoned the race as a result of injuries suffered on stage seven.
