There can\u2019t be much worse for a Tour de France rider than having a driver knock you off the bike after a stage.<\/p>\n
Oh wait, maybe there is.<\/p>\n
Xandro Meurisse was rear-ended after the stage 16 time trial on Tuesday only to have the motorist later track him down on Instagram and slide into his DMs to blame him for it.<\/p>\n
The Belgian veteran told Sporza<\/em> on Wednesday that at least one side of the story was able to laugh it all off.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth passengers thought it was quite funny when they were standing there [after the collision],\u201d Meurisse said as he recounted the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cThe driver even messaged me on Instagram afterward saying it was my fault. They had that kind of nerve,\u201d Meurisse said. \u201cThat says a lot about who those people are.\u201d<\/p>\n Meurisse was hit from behind as he pedaled toward his team bus after he suffered through his TT effort on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The 34-year-old told Sporza<\/em> he caught a glimpse of a car zooming toward him before he was shunted hard from behind.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first I didn\u2019t quite realize what had happened. But then I saw the sealant spilling from my tire on the car,\u201d Meurisse said. \u201cSo, I was hit full on from behind.<\/p>\n \u201cI tried to stay as calm as possible, because [anger] doesn\u2019t solve anything anyway, but this could have ended much worse,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Images on the \u201cXandro Meurisse Fanclub\u201d Facebook account and Meurisse\u2019s own Instagram stories revealed the extent of the damage later that night.<\/p>\n His Q36.5 Pro Cycling jersey was shredded, and his knees were bloodied.<\/p>\n Cyclingnews<\/em> also reported his bike was \u201ccompletely broken.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortunately, Meurisse didn\u2019t sustain any injuries so significant that he couldn\u2019t keep racing toward Paris.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s mainly a lot of scrapes, and I was also really shaken up,\u201d Meurisse said Wednesday. \u201cIn a race, you sometimes see it coming, but I\u2019ve never experienced anything like this before.<\/p>\n \u201cThis hurts really badly.\u201d<\/p>\n Meurisse wasn\u2019t the only victim of an ugly incident with a driver Tuesday.<\/p>\n Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s U.S. teammate Brandon McNulty was brake-checked by a driver before Tuesday\u2019s stage.<\/p>\n McNulty\u2019s UAE Emirates-XRG manager Mauro Gianetti told Eurosport<\/em> he suspected it was an intentional maneuver.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was just coming to the start with the bike. A car was a little bit upset behind him \u2013 we don\u2019t know why,\u201d Gianetti said Tuesday. \u201cThen he overtook Brandon, and then stopped the car. So of course Brandon crashed into the car\u201d<\/p>\n Meurisse is still racing on as the Tour de France reaches its climax in the Alps.<\/p>\n However, McNulty was forced to quit the race on stage 18 Thursday after he picked up the sickness that\u2019s rattling around in his team.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no news whether the drivers \u2013 or maybe driver<\/em> \u2013 has been identified by local authorities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/tour-de-france-rider-hit-driver-traced-blamed-dm\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-10.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated July 23, 2026 09:31AM There can\u2019t be much worse for a Tour de France rider than having a driver knock you off the bike after a stage. Oh wait, maybe there is. Xandro Meurisse was rear-ended after the stage 16 time trial on Tuesday only to have the motorist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2058878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2058878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2058878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2058878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2058878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Meurisse banged up, bike broken, DMs invaded<\/h2>\n
Two suspected road rage cases in one day at the Tour de France<\/h2>\n