Michael Loughran and his wife were riding a tandem in the Etape, and he wrote:

".. it happened right in front of us. We were descending Larrau (I think) and one bike was in front of us. Then another rider overtook us and cut right across the path of an English rider, hit his front wheel and they both went flying and fell off and slid down the road. I had an uneasy feeling as the guy who caused the crash passed us, his maneuver seemed reckless and I started to brake as he passed us - I could see the accident happening.

I managed to get the tandem round one of the bikes and rider, by riding close to the side of the road. But once I had got us around the first bike I could not correct our line and we ended up riding on the grass/soil at the side of the road and finished up in an embankment. This stopped us and we stayed upright and were unhurt and the tandem was ok. We were travelling at between 35-40mph as the crash occurred.

My wife attended the English guy and got him off the road, I warned the other cyclists to take care and when I got chance I moved the bikes (quite hazardous with all the fast descending cyclists). We reassured the English guy - the guy who caused the crash was hurt but not as bad as the English guy, and told him we would send help.

Others had already alerted the gendarmes who were making their way to the crash scene. So we pressed on - but we were very lucky not to have been involved ourselves."