The riders were hit by the tacks towards the end of an absorbing stage.

At the summit of the Mur de Peguere, the second of two category one climbs on the day's 191-kilometre route from Limoux to Foix, Wiggins and Australia's defending champion Cadel Evans (pictured) were among those to suffer flat tyres.


As Spain's Luis-Leon Sanchez, riding for Rabobank, broke free of the day's escape to solo to victory, Wiggins called for the peloton to neutralise their effort to allow Evans to return to the group as they finished more than 18 minutes behind.

"I thought it was the honourable thing to do, nobody should ever profit by somebody's misfortune like that," said Wiggins.

He was immediately christened "Le Gentleman" by French television following the noble act.

"It became quite apparent very quickly when all of the guys started puncturing at once," said Wiggins.

"It wasn't just one or two, it all started happening and was becoming dangerous.

"What can you do?

"It's something we can't control.

"There's nothing stopping more of that sort of stuff happening.

"It's sad.

"Those are the type of things we have to put up with as cyclists."

Wiggins had been struck by a flare during stage 12.

"I think people take that for granted sometimes, just how close they can get to us," said the Londoner.

"If that happened in a football stadium, or wherever, you'd be arrested.

"But we're out there, quite vulnerable at times, very close to the public on climbs.

"We're just the riders at the end of the day and we're there to be shot at, literally.

"It's quite sad and hopefully that's not going to continue.

"There's nothing you can do about it. We just have to get on with it."

It left the top of the general classification unchanged and with Wiggins facing six more days' racing to keep the maillot jaune on a permanent basis as the Tour's first British winner.

Wiggins retained a 2min 05sec lead over Team Sky colleague and compatriot Chris Froome ahead of the finish in Paris next Sunday (July 22), with Italy's Vincenzo Nibali 2:23 adrift in third.


Jean-Francois Pescheux, competitions director of Tour organisers Amaury Sports Organisation, admitted they had no idea who was behind today's events.

"We don't know who it was," he said.

"No-one saw anything.

"We've found some of the tacks.

"They're the kind of tacks you use in mattresses or carpets.

"They were obviously thrown by a spectator.

"There were around 50 riders together in the front peloton at the top and about 30 of them ended up with punctures.

"Some of them had three or four nails in their tyres.

"We couldn't neutralise it straight away because we didn't know what had happened.

"Fortunately [Team] Sky neutralised the race."

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