Hay, pepper spray and a solid dose of crashes seems to be this year’s recipe at the Tour de France.

Yesterday’s chaotic events started with a series of fruitless attacks off the front of the bunch, followed by a combination of protesting farmers throwing hay in the way of the cyclists. As if this wasn’t enough, the pepper spray used to tame the unrest would backfire, accidentally blowing into the faces of numerous riders.

More from The Guardian:

After a 15-minute break, the race restarted and in the wake of more attacks, we finally got a 44-strong breakaway that eventually provided us with a stage winner in Julian Alaphilippe, who capitalised on an Adam Yates crash on the final descent to breast the tape for the second time in this Tour.

Here’s what costed Adam:

But Yates wasn’t the only one that would kiss the floor. Watch Philippe Gilbert skidding his way to a wall-defying somersault:

As you can see, Philippe made it back onto his bike. Pretty impressive (or silly) considering he actually injured his arm.

The day would end with French Quick Step-Floors rider, Julian Alaphilippe, claiming the stage in five hours, 13 minutes and 22 seconds. Oh and he didn’t fall once, even after riding through a gas spray containing cayenne pepper that’s irritant to the eyes and respiratory passages, most notably used as a disabling weapon.

Nice one, bru.

[source:theguardian]