Tour de France rider spanks mooning spectator

A rider in the Tour de France has shocked and delighted a cheeky section of the crowd as he rode past.

Certain sections of the fans cheering riders on at the famous event can be notoriously mischievous - and this year’s seem to be no exception.

During a stage from Saint-Etienne to Brioude on Bastille Day, a group of fans lined up by the side of the road and presented their bare behinds to the peleton (for some reason).

They got more than they bargained for, one of the riders raising his hand and delivering a hard slap to his exposed rear as he sailed past.

The moment left the crowd in stitches - and the spectator with a very noticeable red mark.

Noticeable when his pants were down, anyway.

Tour de France favourites pleased with progress

Geraint Thomas may have spent the first rest day of the Tour de France some 72 seconds off the yellow jersey, but he and Team Ineos admitted things could not have gone much better for them in the opening 10 days.

The crosswind chaos of Monday's stage 10 saw Thomas power his way into second place on the general classification behind Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, with the Welshman's young teammate Egan Bernal just four seconds behind in third.

After a number of rivals - most notably Groupama-FDJ's Thibaut Pinot - shipped 100 seconds on the stage to Albi, Thomas and Bernal became the best placed of the main contenders to be wearing yellow in Paris.

"With myself and Egan second and third, it's been a great 10 days," the defending champion said.

"Obviously it would be better if we were a couple of seconds behind Alaphilippe rather than a minute, but other than that it's great."

It is not a dissimilar situation to the first rest day of last year, when Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet held yellow with a 43-second cushion over Thomas in second.

Van Avermaet was never expected to hold yellow for long in the mountains, duly handing it over when Thomas won stage 11 to La Rosiere, and many predict Alaphilippe will do something similar when the race hits the Pyrenees at the weekend.

Though he has thrilled the French crowds with his attacking style, the 27-year-old is not targeting the general classification over the three weeks and cannot be expected to keep this up for much longer.

"I won't say we were happy, but we didn't mind him gaining a few seconds after the first week," Thomas said of the Deceuninck-Quick Step rider.

"He's never ridden for GC before over three weeks, but obviously we've got to be more and more aware of him the further the race goes on.

"There's some big days in the mountains now and the time trial. By the second rest day we'll know a lot more. If he's increased his lead it will be more of a concern, but we'll see how it goes."

WITH AAP