Video: Mountain Biker Jumps Over Tour de France Peloton - Updated with POV Footage

Jul 17, 2018
by Sarah Moore  
This morning, Alexis Bosson jumped over the lycra-clad peloton of the Tour de France, as the riders climbed up the Montée du Plateau des Glières on Stage 10 of the race. You can watch the clip that played during the live broadcast of the event here and here.

A well executed and impressive suicide gap over de Tour de France by french rider Alexis Bosson on his Nukeproof Pulse. On July 17th the Tour de France headed from Annecy to Le Grand Bornand for the 1st mountain stage in the Alps. Bosson is seen jumping over the first road racers climbing the Route des Gli res near Le Petit Bornand and Annecy.
Photo by Richard Bord

photo

It's not the first time a mountain biker has jumped over the Tour de France peloton. In 2002, Dave Watson gapped over the riders as they were climbing the Col du Galibier, and in 2013 a French mountain biker did the same thing on another section of the route.


Dave Watson

Filmed by Emeric Caron

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135 Comments
  • 172 31
 It's only a matter of time before some Jerry wrecks attempting this, takes out the Peloton, and makes a bad name for freeride.
  • 82 10
 Redbull should get in on it and do whip off/ gap jump over the Peloton contest next year! That would be rad!
  • 126 4
 freeride has a good name? thought it was just a bunch of punks Smile
  • 10 1
 .....but think of the view count!!!
  • 13 45
flag vinay FL (Jul 17, 2018 at 11:07) (Below Threshold)
 What worries me more is with all that fear for terrorist attacks these days, an overzealous gendarme might fire a gun at whatever unsuspected approaches at speed. The flip side of course is, these jumps actually cheer up the event a little and prove that whatever approaches at speed may actually be nice and harmless. I like this flipside.
  • 33 0
 Jerry Don't Gap.
  • 115 11
 First of all Jerry's ski and Joey's bike. Second of all a guy who can gap a 2 lane road is no Joey. . Thirdly.....lighten up this is awesome.
  • 6 1
 What jerry would even attempt that?
  • 36 3
 @andnyleswillriot: never underestimate the stupidity of a man trying to prove his worth.
  • 4 1
 Bad name for freeride on mainstream has been given allready since rampage.... I guess I am not the only one who gets answered many times if You too make those crazy things off the cliff on TV right?
PD I love rampage,don t care...
  • 4 0
 Yeah what many tend to forget. It's all fine and dandy till something goes wrong.
  • 1 0
 @employee7: awesome indeed. I like how the suicide no hander was added to give some 2018 flair. True oneup
  • 3 4
 @DrSam: I'm afraid you're right. Kind of silly in a way. If something goes wrong, he might hit one or two single riders. In the TdF, people typically wave huge logoed inflatable hands or other nonsense in front of the riders or stand in the way taking pictures (even a gendarme did so once) causing huge pile ups whilst these athletes are at the final mass sprint. It never really caused a ban on these atributes or made them install a second row of fences to keep the fans further from the riders in these critical areas. If something went wrong, the riders were just disappointed for a day and then move on. But if a mountainbike rider jumps over a less hectic section of the race and happens to take one or two riders out, oh yeah that would be really bad.
  • 8 10
 It's great to see people still having the balls to do this in the age of people staring at phones, celebrate it. Oh and fuck tour de france anyway.
  • 2 0
 @drivereight: redbull did that already :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8TLp2t8bJI
  • 1 1
 Jerry Springer might?
  • 11 2
 @casman86: It's perfectly okay not to like the tdf or road riders or any other thing you don't like, you have my full support on that. What people are objecting to, me included, is that these gap jumpers are taking a huge chance with the health and livelihood of other people. That's a douchebag thing to do. We've all seen enough gap jump fails to have a pretty good idea of what would happen if one these comedians cased the jump on some tour riders skull. No one expects to get taken out from the side by 20 kgs of alloy moving 50 kph. It could be the end of a career or even possibly a life. Just because the riders in these examples pulled it off doesn't mean every rider will. Take all the chances you want with your own life, leave others out of your risk taking.
  • 1 0
 @MOWtown:
When Jerry died, I heard a bunch of hippies cried.
  • 2 0
 @drivereight: Yes! whip the peloton! I like that idea.
  • 6 0
 I know right?!!....Josh Bender worked so hard to make freeride what it was, then these young punks come and turn it into some well planned, tested, safe and thought out stunt that they tested before hand. There was almost no chance of them casing it and flying over the bars Bender style. I bet that beer he was drinking at the end was a non-alcoholic near beer too.
  • 4 0
 PHeller: this is clearly a pre staged event with a Pre built ramp they clearly got some sort of okay. I don’t think a freerider would attempt to jump over people without being almost Certain they would make it without hurting innocent people.
  • 3 1
 @optionc: Quite right. As a trackie who rode on the road seriously, and lifelong MTBer, if unplanned this seems like a pretty massively douchebaggy thing to do. If everyone has fair warning go for gold, but we’re all bike riders - hell Peter Sagan and Chris Froome were MTBers first, for f$ck’s sake... And what’s with that pejorative “lycra clad” in the article anyway? What do you people wear under your baggies, just your raw gooch and bleeding scrotum? I’m no climber myself but any rider who can even make their team for the Tour is ten times the athlete that the ‘journalists’ at Pinkbike and probably anyone reading this is. Grow some respect.
  • 2 1
 @ricovonsuave:
It was a well planned and thought out stunt. The fact that the tour riders didn't know was what made it a stunt. The Lycra Clad guys might be in better shape that the Baggy crew but it's a fact mountain bikers have better bike handling skills than roadies. Any mountain biker can ride on the road but not every roadie can ride mountain bike trails.
Also, I don't wear lycra under my baggies, I wear a short liner with a pad.
  • 1 1
 @DaveJube: Nice generalisation there. What makes you think "roadies" and "mountain bikers" are mutually exclusive? Is descending a winding mountain pass at 80kph not an example of fine bike handling skill?
  • 1 0
 @ricovonsuave: Well said. Don't forget Cadel Evans - won the XC World Cup twice, then went and won the 2011 Tour de France.
  • 77 2
 Is is ok to say that it was “dope”? Or will I get banned...?
  • 10 0
 You could just say your laptop was stolen and you didn't write this comment
  • 1 0
 @thewasp: yeah, that seems to be the go to excuse for people getting caught posting dumb stuff......I GOT HACKED!!!
  • 2 0
 @DaveJube: what about the ever popular I was really drunk.
  • 1 0
 @loganflores: haha...oh yeah, I use that one a lot though.
  • 42 0
 Is he throwing a sui though??
  • 9 0
 Dang straight.
  • 1 4
 That’s old school.
  • 25 0
 Guess that makes him a suicide bomber?
  • 4 0
 sui no hander is the cherry on top. god bless em
  • 20 1
 has anyone seen Bruni today?

Anyone? Can we confirm?
  • 1 1
 kamakaze
  • 41 0
 Just heard Chris Froome is going to jump the Hot Seat at Rampage this year...
  • 6 2
 That would be completely rad. Honestly, road biking needs some stunts that like to bring in some fresh (no so tightly wound) audience.
  • 44 2
 Think you will find Chris is too busy smashing back on his inhaler....
  • 2 0
 Man. Now my mind is racing trying to think of ideas for roadies to retaliate at Crankworx. ????
  • 46 23
 Dave Watson is the original, plus he's still the only one who sent it dirt-to-dirt. So, even though he crashed, the rest of these guys are just posers.
  • 38 0
 Plus he got arrested for it =)
  • 17 2
 Damn right, NWD4 with the behind the scenes was killer! Not to mention his gap FROM 2002 is way gnarlier than the two more recent editions! Dave-o wins
  • 74 2
 I see them all as a tribute to Watson and what freeride meant to us as a community back in the day, while still embracing the freeride mentality today.
If you’re gonna call these guys posers, seeing as there’s only ever been a handful to actually jump the tour, you better be willing to fly your ass to France and send it yourself...
  • 8 0
 plus Watsons was just the gnarliest of the drops too!
  • 6 0
 did Watson paint his name underneath the gap? It pretty clearly says WATSON right there..
  • 10 0
 if he had the suspension of today... probably would've rode it out no problem and kept on truckin
  • 17 3
 @mountainyj: Thank you. Lot of keyboard warriors talking shit about the new guys doing it. Each one is a legend in my book
  • 11 1
 He road gapped the tour de france, show some respect.
  • 7 0
 www.pinkbike.com/photo/10415196

This is in the bike shop @ Coed y Brenin, North Wales.
  • 2 0
 @bman33: cleary! I love it, it's a good tradition!
  • 4 1
 Don't worry next year Travis Pastrana will do all three jumps on the same day and stick every one.
  • 2 2
 so it is! watsons jump was absolutely insane. he would eat the other two guys for breakfast
  • 1 0
 Not joking but is Dave Watson dead? I thought that I heard he had died. I know the probability of him killing himself was very high doing the type of stuff he did. But seriously, if he dead....RIP.
  • 14 1
 Didn't someone do that on a roadbike last year?
  • 21 1
 Simon Godziek
  • 17 1
 I think it was Szymon Godziek who backflipped over the Tour de Pologne! But it was a RedBull thing
  • 14 1
 @cristouf: Here's the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8TLp2t8bJI
  • 2 0
 @sarahmoore: an a road bike!!!!
  • 5 0
 How about a spin-off event where a downhiller races a breakaway down a descent. The roadies do it on the pavement, the downhiller takes whatever 'short cut' he or she wants, a la Armstrong's field escapade when Beloki crashed.
  • 1 0
 We were all super impressed when they had part of a dh race on cobblestones. Oh ah wow. They did a whole bunch more cobblestones as a closed pack on road bikes on the weekend. The carnage was great!
  • 6 3
 Would have been sweet to step it up and jump over them using a tandem dh bike.
  • 1 0
 or a wheelchair DH
  • 5 0
 He threw the hands too!
  • 3 0
 Hey, he lands it. Nice, was expecting the customary tomahawk/ ragdoll/cops/cuffs.
  • 6 3
 The most exciting thing that will happen in the whole race.
  • 6 2
 we need more of these
  • 1 0
 Sooooo that's why Peter Sagan rode ahead in the breakaway Wink Seriously though, if it was a green jersey, I'd put money down it was Sagan!
  • 3 1
 Respect to hats off to Alexis, though I would like to say Dave Watson was the first, is the original and went the biggest.
  • 2 0
 Szymon Godziek jumped over Tour de Pologne on a road bike...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h64U1j9v3g4
  • 3 0
 GET THIS MAN A BEER
  • 2 1
 At least Watson had the courtesy to go just BEHIND the riders in an effort not to scare or distract them.
  • 3 1
 When Lance Armstrong takes it too far.
  • 3 0
 It wasn't me.
  • 2 0
 Watson painted on the road was the perfect touch!
  • 2 0
 Those appear to be 26" wheels. A tribute to good times!
  • 2 0
 Looks like he was on a session
  • 2 0
 TBF he jumped over a road - the peloton hadn't made it to that bit yet.
  • 1 0
 Ya, the last two jumped too early.
  • 1 0
 What, no mention of the dude(Polish dude IIRC) who did a BACK FLIP over the Peloton, ON A ROAD BIKE!?
THAT was awesome
  • 1 0
 I take it that this is illegal. But what about it is illegal? Like, what law are they braking to do this?
  • 1 0
 I don't know about the laws in France but here in the states they could jam you up with no less than 5 laws. Reckless endangerment, disturbing the peace, disorderly behavior, getting gnarly and generally having fun would be a few laws they would tap you up on.....and probably shoot and kill you if you put up any resistance.
  • 1 0
 @DaveJube: I’m sure the laws in France are just as tough if you did this illegally. And I don’t think they would shoot you for something like this your being dramatic.
  • 1 0
 @loganflores: LOL...I know I was just being dramatic because it seems like the police here in the states are quick to shoot and kill people lately.
  • 1 0
 @DaveJube: seems like it ya but the stats say otherwise.
  • 1 0
 Meh... Szymon Godziek backflipped over the Tour de Pologne peloton last year ... ... on a road bike!!
  • 1 0
 Watson by a mile. This is not even close.
  • 6 5
 That takes some real balls, thus Lance is out Frown sorry cheater one nut.
  • 1 0
 Thank you
  • 2 1
 Don't kid yourself, they're all juiced to the eyeballs
  • 1 0
 Gnarl, gnarlier, shred, yeaboi, rip!
  • 1 0
 I know that no-hander - Kyle strait, is that you?
  • 1 0
 Armstrong could hit that.
  • 1 0
 For My its error. Wrong place for this.
  • 3 2
 Again?
  • 2 1
 Hopefully it's just a click bait article that helps Sarah get a paycheck. Or at least some cool sram brakes.
  • 1 0
 Life status.....LEGEND!
  • 1 0
 Yes yes yes yes!
  • 4 4
 Only interesting thing to happen on le tour
  • 1 0
 #nukeproof
  • 1 1
 And they say there are no more heroes left in the world....
  • 1 0
 pwnt
  • 1 1
 Looks Like an EBike!! Lol
  • 1 0
 This is procoregnar
  • 1 4
 So freaking lame. Didn't even gap a biker.... The second I saw it I thought of how much better the guy in 2013 did it. I would call this "Rider gaps over road tour de france is heald on moments before riders pass"
  • 3 3
 HO HUM
  • 2 3
 Legends
  • 3 5
 WHATEVERr...Copycat...Have been done before...plus, bad timing. Bum!
  • 3 5
 Stupid, Stupid, Stupid Juvenile.
  • 2 3
 Did it scare you snowflake?
  • 2 0
 @casman86: "Snowflake". Man, you just took the dimwit handbook, turned to the 'generic words to try and insult people with' section and just said the word at the top of the list even if it made no sense at all.
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