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 Friday.
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. It seems probable that they came from young adolescents who didn't have anything better to do.
‘We have a very precise statement from one rider who said he noticed two teenagers hiding behind a tree on the right side of the road, contrary to the rest of the crowd who were watching the race.’
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.’
