COLMAR (France) - FRENCH police have lodged official complaints from Tour de France riders Oscar Freire and Julian Dean after the pair were hit by pellets fired from an airgun on the race's 13th stage on Friday.
DEAN, the main lead-out man for American sprinter Tyler Farrar, was hit on a finger of his left hand, according to his Garmin team.
'Julian was shot by an air rifle or BB gun (pellet gun) at the top of a climb during the stage. He has a minor injury on his finger but he was able to finish,' Garmin-Slipstream spokeswoman Marya Pongrace confirmed.
BESANCON (France) - A SPECTATOR has been killed and two
others injured on the Tour de France on Saturday after being hit by a police motorbike on the 14th stage, French radio reported.
The accident happened in the village of Wittelsheim, about 40km from the start of Saturday's stage in Colmar.
Freire, from Spain, was hit on the leg and New Zealander Dean was hit on the hand after shots were fired near the 165km mark, on a 2.1km long climb called the Col du Bannstein, of the 200km ride from Vittel to Colmar.
Both riders emerged relatively unscathed from the incident and were visited separately by police on Friday night.
After giving statements Freire and Dean lodged official complaints for 'assault with a dangerous weapon', according to the public prosecutor in Colmar Pascal Schultz.
Schultz said at a press briefing that police had not yet found the gunman, although investigators said one Tour de France rider claims to have seen two teenagers, aged around 16 or 17, acting suspiciously and hiding behind a tree.
Schultz added: 'Several riders have also said they heard between three and five dull shots.' Police have been drafted in from Strasbourg and Colmar and are now hunting the gunman, or gunmen.
Freire, who had to have a pellet removed from his leg by his team doctor after finishing the stage, said he felt the shot hit him, and looked down to see some blood dripping from his leg.
But the Spaniard, a specialist sprinter who won the green jersey for the points competition last year, played down the incident as he prepared to ride Saturday's 14th stage from Colmar to Besancon.
'My leg is okay,' said Freire, a former three-time world road race champion. 'The publicity from this whole incident is bigger than if I'd won a stage.'
A spokesman for Freire's Rabobank team said after the stage: 'Oscar heard three shots and then felt a sting. A small shot was removed from his leg.' -- AFP
