The woman who achieved international infamy this past weekend when her completely careless posing with a sign on the roadway caused a major pile-up during the Tour de France on Saturday may have actually fled the country after it was announced that police were seeking her and that race organizers planned to sue, reports say.
Completely oblivious the pack of riders quickly approaching her on Saturday, the woman in question – wearing a cap, sunglasses, blue jeans, and a yellow rain jacket – stood with one foot on the track and a large cardboard sign that read “ALLEZ OPI-OMI!”
The sign extended several feet onto the track, and ended up smacking cyclist Tony Martin in the face, causing him to fall and take the rest of the peloton – a French term meaning a large group of riders tightly bunched together – down with him, resulting in a massive pile-up of bikes and riders.
Video of the fan-caused crash have been circulating on social media for the past several days. Some cyclists were not able to continue the race due to injuries or damage to their bikes.
According to a French news site, the woman immediately must have realized the scope of her foul-up, as she fled the scene and may have even left the country for Germany. There is speculation that the woman herself could be German because her sign contained a mixture of French and German phrases; “allez” means “go” in French while “opi” and “omi” are German terms for grandpa and grandma.
Tour deputy director Pierre-Yves Thouault told the media that the tour plans to sue the woman who caused the crash to make an example out of her.
“We are suing this woman who behaved so badly,” he said. “We are doing this so that the tiny minority of people who do this do not spoil the show for everyone.”
The fan’s potential misfortunes aren’t set to end there- Lieutenant-colonel Joel Scherer of the French Gendarmerie announced that the police intend to arrest and charge the woman when she’s found for “unintentional short-term injury through a manifestly deliberate breach of a duty of safety or care.”
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