A woman who just wanted to say hello to her grandparents on TV is now apparently an international cycling fugitive after that sign caused complete chaos at the Tour de France over the weekend. On Saturday, a spectator hanging a sign (and her body) out into the roadway ahead of the race’s peloton group caused a massive wreck when that sign made contact with racer Tony Martin, a German who went down and caused dozens of bikers to crash behind him.
The Tour de France announced that the organization would sue the woman who caused the massive crash with her big cardboard sign, which drew international headlines in the aftermath of the wreck. As The Washington Post reported on Monday, police continue to search for the woman, who went missing after the wreck injured some spectators and quite literally broke some bikes.
“We are suing this woman who behaved so badly,” Pierre-Yves Thouault, the tour’s deputy director, told Agence France-Presse. “We are doing this so that the tiny minority of people who do this don’t spoil the show for everyone.”
One problem, though: multiple reports say she has fled the country in order to escape the hunt for her that started on Saturday after the crash. As CBS reports, French media outlets are reporting that the woman hopped on a plane and abruptly left the country as outrage grew.
However, French publication Ouest-France reported the woman, who is believed to be German, got on a flight and is untraceable, according to CBS Sports.
It’s entirely unclear why this person would be untraceable or what kind of punishment they’re now avoiding by being on the lam, but things are quickly escalating here to say the least. Hopefully things come to a swift conclusion and everyone who was injured in the wreck recovers. And unless using a cardboard sign to disrupt the Tour de France was the start of a very elaborate heist or international crime thriller, the person on the run comes to their senses and heads back to France soon.
