A Spectator’s Sign Felled Dozens of Tour de France Racers

The French authorities were searching for a woman who they said left the scene after a German cyclist crashed into her sign, setting off a pileup during the first stage of the race.

The French authorities said they were looking for an unidentified woman who held a banner along the side of the road at the Tour de France on Saturday, leading to a collision that sent dozens of cyclists tumbling to the ground. Footage from the scene shows fallen athletes in a heap of tangled legs and spinning wheels after a German rider, Tony Martin, crashed into the sign along the side of the road before falling. That set off a cascade of collisions in the middle of the peloton, a French word meaning “ball” or “group” that also refers to a cluster of cyclists in a race. In a Facebook post on Saturday, the authorities in the French department of Finistère, in Brittany, asked for witnesses to help them identify the woman who held the banner, which said: “ALLEZ OPI-OMI!” — the French word for “go” along with two German terms of endearment for grandparents. Before the crash, she appeared to be facing away from the racers and toward the television cameras.