Two bikes that interfered with an attack by Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) on stage 14 of the Tour de France have been suspended from the race for stage 15, with the riders and their passengers also fined.

As Pogachar and race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma), the main contenders for the yellow jersey, approached the summit of the Col de Joux Plane, the sides of the road were filled with a wall of spectators. But his furious acceleration was quickly cut short when Pogachar attacked 500 meters from the summit for a bonus second.

The two bikes ahead of him did not leave enough room for them to get out of the way of their sortie.

The decision from the jury of the commissaires stated that there had been "violations of traffic rules and command vehicles during the race (non-compliance with the press specifications before the Col de Joux Plane Bonus Sprint)."

The driver and passenger, as well as the cameramen from broadcaster France Télévisions and L'Equipe, were each fined CHF 500 and suspended for the 15th stage.

They were not the only ones excluded from the race; the bike carrying the AFP cameraman was also excluded from the second day in the Alps and fined for another incident involving traffic rules and directive violations.

"When I saw Pogachar attacking, I said to my driver. 'When he came up to us we were in a tricky situation. The crowd was incredible, and we had to make a choice at that moment: to interrupt the rider's efforts or to get lost in the crowd and hurt people."

"I'm not going to defend force majeure -- you can't get into these situations. I should have asked the driver to drive faster and faster. Next time I'll speed up instead of taking pictures. The rules are all there for this situation. We made a mistake. I feel very sorry for Tadei Pogachal and for the show."

After the stage, Pogachar said the interrupted effort was a "wasted bullet."

"I'm a little disappointed that I wasted one sprint, but I don't think it changes the final result. I stayed in the legs and couldn't sprint for the bonus. I messed up a little bit. But that's the reality."

Adam Yates, Pogachar's key lieutenant, was more candid when asked about the bikes interfering with the race, saying in an interview with the FloBikes YouTube channel that it was "an absolute disgrace."

"When you look at the helicopter footage and see the amount of bikes and the amount of fans on the side of the road, we hardly get to play in the field.

Pogachar eventually had his time bonus line broken by Vingegaard on the Col de Joux Plane climb, but reversed his position in the sprint for second place before the finish.

Having lost one second on the first day in the Alps, Vinghegaard heads into stage 15 with a 10-second lead.