Tour de France 2012: officials urge police to investigate after tacks puncture wheels of dozens of riders Speaking on French television, race director Jean-Francois Pecheux has also credited the Sky Team - whose leader, Bradley Wiggins, is in the yellow jersey - for encouraging the pack to not speed ahead or take advantage of the mishaps of the affected riders, including defending champion Cadel Evans. With Wiggins and defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) among those to suffer flat tires, the stage was neutralised, initially by the Briton's Team Sky squad, as the peloton rolled in more than 18 minutes behind stage winner Luis-Leon Sanchez. Wiggins said: "What can you do? It's something we can't control. There's nothing stopping more of that sort of stuff happening. It's sad. Those are the type of things we have to put up with as cyclists. I think people take that for granted sometimes, just how close they can get to us. If that happened in a football stadium, or wherever, you'd be arrested, CCTV. But we're out there, quite vulnerable at times, very close to the public on climbs. We're just the riders at the end of the day and we're there to be shot at, literally. It's quite sad and hopefully that's not going to continue. There's nothing you can do about it. We just have to get on with it.