Mountain biker steals show from Tour de France leaders

  • Updated
  • 18/07/2018

While the road cyclists took to the mountains for the first time in this year's Tour de France, they found themselves briefly upstaged by a daredevil mountain biker.

As the lead group tackled the second climb of the day - Pleateu des Gilieres - TV cameras behind the bunch caught the outrageous stunt, as the mountain biker - later identified as Alexis Bosson - rolled down a slope and off a ramp to soar over the road and down the other side.

He even pulled a no-hander in mid-air, probably to the amusement of the Tour riders.

This was not the first time a mountain biker had buzzed the French classic - it happened previous in 2002 and 2013.

On Wednesday (NZ time), Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe eventually took the 158.5km stage, but Belgian Greg Van Avermaet extended his lead over the general classification, now 2m 22s ahead of Briton Geraint Thomas and 3m 10s up on Spaniard Alejandro Valverde.

Dion Smith nursed a broken thumb and rib injuries through the journey and is the best Kiwi in 109th overall.

Newshub.