American cyclist Sepp Kuss narrowly avoided a potentially fatal fall during Stage 20 of the Tour de France on Saturday. While vying for the stage victory, Kuss lost control of his bicycle on a right-hand bend and veered into safety netting at the edge of the road, with a significant drop on the other side.
Video footage captured the moment Kuss's bike slid across three lanes before colliding with a short wall and ending up against the netting. Analysts noted that the netting stopped mere inches from where the cyclist went off course, suggesting a slightly different trajectory could have resulted in a fall down the mountainside.
"This could have been a life-or-death moment," said TNT Sports analyst Matt Stephens. "The other side of that netting is a precipitous drop."
This incident marked Kuss's second crash of the stage. Earlier, he had also slipped while riding through a dark, wet tunnel.
"I was so on the limit, I misjudged the corner a bit," Kuss told the Tour’s media team after the stage. "First in the tunnel, and then after that I was still trying to make up too much time. It was a bit scary. Sorry to my wife and my family watching at home! That’s racing."
Despite the near-fatal crash, Kuss remounted his bicycle and ultimately finished the stage in third place. He described himself as not being "entirely clear-headed" but also stated, "I wasn’t too scared. I thought I’d read the right line. Luckily, there were nets."
The Tour de France has a history of fatalities, with the last recorded death occurring in 1995 when Italian cyclist Fabio Castarelli suffered a fatal head injury during a high-speed crash on Stage 15.