Tour de France: ‘Would have come as a nasty shock’ – Owain Doull taken out by stray bidon on Stage 15

Owain Doull (EF Education–EasyPost) suffered a major dose of bad luck on Stage 15 of the Tour de France when he ran over a stray bidon, sending him to ground.

The Welsh rider hit the deck after riding over the luminous yellow bottle, which belonged to the Intermarche Wanty Gobert team.

Doull had been enjoying a snack at the back of the bunch before the catastrophe occurred.

The 29-year-old was able to get back on his bike but then required attention from the medical car while going downhill at 70kph.

“Oh no, no, no, no no no no” exclaimed Rob Hatch on commentary. “Crash and the rider down is Owain Doull”.

“He’s ridden over a bidon,” observed Robbie McEwen. “And it’s one of the Intermarche Wanty bidon’s because they’re riding with the yellow ones, aren’t they?”

“That fluorescent yellow bidon,” Hatch added. “Ridden over by the Welsh rider who already had rotten luck at the Giro d’Italia having to go home through sickness.

“Back on his bike, thankfully, but that would have come as a nasty shock.”

McEwen then explained how the bottle proved to be so dangerous in that situation.

“With the bidons, the way they are constructed with the screw top lids, it’s not like the old ones that used to have that pop-on lid, if you ran over it, they would just burst open and go flat.

“Now with the screw ons obviously seal an lot better and the bidons are better to drink out of, but the problem is if the nib is shut, they don’t pop open, they don’t go flat.

“It’s like hitting a brick in the middle of the road”.

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