Tour de France. “I want to pay 200CHF every day and relive this moment”: Julien Bernard fined by the UCI for stopping

Julien Bernard se souviendra pendant longtemps de son contre-la-montre. Capture d'écran X France TV Sports

Guilty of having stopped for a few moments on the road during the seventh stage of the Tour de France, Friday June 5, Frenchman Julien Bernard was sanctioned by the International Cycling Union.

This will undoubtedly be one of the beautiful images of this 2024 Tour de France. Usually, the time trial riders are constantly looking for position as perfect aerodynamics as possible.

Julien Bernard did quite the opposite on Friday when he passed in front of his family and supporters on his training routes.

Excited, the son of Jean-François Bernard, who races for the American Lidl-Trek team, clapped everyone's hands, raised his arms, harangued the public and even split with a kiss to his partner Margot and to the son, recalling the "Pinot bend" from last year.

🔊 "𝐎𝐡 𝐪𝐮𝐞 𝐜'𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮 !" 💖

Quand le local de l'étape, Julien Bernard, harangue la foule (et s'arrête même pour embrasser sa femme 😅)

Suivez la fin du chrono sur Eurosport via l'application @StreamMaxFrance#TDF2024 #LesRP pic.twitter.com/2Eut38kS5y

— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) July 5, 2024

"Sorry UCI for having damaged the image of sport"

His time suffered (61st in the end) but the main thing was elsewhere on Saturday. "My girlfriend has been working for weeks to give me this moment, it was better than in my dreams. It was magnificent. I don't even have the words. There were all my friends, all my family", he said.

As beautiful as this scene of communion between a rider and his audience was, the UCI does not laugh when it comes to respecting the rules. Thus, the Frenchman was fined 200 Swiss francs (205.98 €) for "inappropriate behavior during the race and damage to the ;#39;image of sport".

A sanction which did not fail to make the main person concerned react, speaking on X. "And sorry UCI for having caused damage to the image of sport. But I want to pay 200CHF every day and relive this moment,” he wrote.