The woman who caused a huge pile-up at the Tour de France last weekend and remained a fugitive for the next four days would just like to move on with her life now. If only the riders could do the same.
Her huge sign caused one rider to pull out of the race entirely, while a medic on the scene who had previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan literally compared the carnage to that of a war zone.
At a press conference in Brest on Thursday, local prosecutor Camille Miansoni said that the woman simply wanted to send an “affectionate message” to her grandparents, who were watching on TV.
“The suspect has expressed her feelings of shame and fear about the consequences of her act,” the prosecutor said.
“She said she is worried about the media attention for what she has called her ‘stupidity’.”
On top of that, the organisers of the Tour de France have called off their witch hunt after they realised the hatred for this woman spiraled out of control.
“We are withdrawing our complaint. This story has been blown out of proportion but we wish to remind everyone of the safety rules on the race,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme told Reuters.
“If you come to the Tour, you hold your kid, you hold your pet and don’t cross the road carelessly. And above all, you respect the riders – they’re the ones worthy of live TV.”
But not all of the riders themselves are ready to get over the incident.
German rider Tony Martin, who was actually the first competitor to be hit by the sign, seemed pretty pissed off.
“Not only did she fail to stick around and help us get up from the floor, she didn’t present herself to the police or present her excuses,” Martin recently told German magazine Bild.
As for the cops, they just want everyone to be a bit kinder online.
“The suspect has some personal vulnerabilities and we need to avoid a lynching in the media or on social media,” Colonel Nicolas Duvinage said.
The woman nevertheless faces potential jail time depending on how serious the injuries are deemed to have been.
