A number of riders had a lucky escape at the finish of the Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise yesterday when they avoided hitting a ball which was thrown over the barriers at the finish of the 146-kilometre race.
The victory was taken by Arthur Vichot (FDJ) who won the sprint in Marseille from a small group ahead of Maxime Bouet (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie).
The next group finished 34″ behind and was led home by Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) ahead of Jasper de Buyst (Lotto-Soudal) and Julien Simon (Cofidis, Solutions Crédits).
As this group approaches the line, a ball can be seen being thrown over the barriers, but fortunately all of the riders managed to avoid hitting it.
You can see the ball being thrown over the barriers at the 1’31” mark in the below video:
