National Post Sports

Tour de France racers are used to dodging flags, people and the odd stray dog along the race route.

But flares?

Overall leader Bradley Wiggins wasn’t so lucky during Friday’s 12th stage from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay in the Ardeche region. The Briton was burnt on the arm by a spectator carrying a flare and running alongside the peloton as it raced over the Col du Granier, one of the two category-1 climbs during the stage.

“I got hit in the arm with a flare, it burnt my arm a bit,” Wiggins said after the race. “It was some nutter running up the hill and it shows you freak things like that can happen in the Tour. I’m fine though.”