Cyclist Julien Bernard Fined for Pausing During Tour de France to Kiss His Wife

French cyclist Julien Bernard has no regrets after he was fined for pausing to kiss his wife during the Tour de France on Friday, July 5.

Bernard, 32, took a moment during the race to greet his wife, who was holding their child, with a quick kiss as they cheered him on in the crowd of spectators at the event. The sweet moment was captured and shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) by Eurosport France and NBCS Cycling.

After the race, Bernard shared a screenshot of the fine he was issued by the UCI, cycling's governing body, in a post on X.

The UCI fined him 200CHF (Swiss francs), equivalent to $223, for the violation, citing "unseemly or inappropriate behavior during the race and damage to the image of the sport."

Alongside the screenshot, Bernard addressed the fine. Translated from French, the cyclist said, "And sorry @UCI_cycling for having damaged the image of Sport, but I am willing to pay 200CHF every day and relive this moment," adding a nervous laughter emoji.

According to CNN, Bernard had a handful of friends and family supporting him on the sidelines of the race, which took place in his hometown Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin in Burgundy.

The outlet reported that Bernard's hometown supporters arrived with homemade posters reading, "Allez JB," which translates to "Let's go JB," and cheered for him "in the middle of the road" during the race.

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After the race, Bernard told French newspaper Le Bien Public that he doesn't mind paying the fine after experiencing the "once in a lifetime" moment with his wife and family.

“I’d been waiting for this moment since the route was announced last October,” he said. “This kind of moment comes once in a lifetime and never mind if they fined me. The fine was explained as for behavior damaging to the image of the sport."

Per the French outlet, Bernard added, “My wife organized for everyone to come and see me at that point of the race and I wanted to show my gratitude and thank her for that."

In response to Bernard's post on X, Danish cyclist Magnus Cort shared a video in which he stopped a race to kiss his wife. "What a joke. I guess I was lucky when they missed me a couple of days ago," Cort wrote in his reply to Bernard.

"Actually that was two kisses so you should get double fines," Bernard responded, adding two laughing emojis.

Latvian cyclist Toms Skujinš also poked fun at the fine on X. "UCI doing UCI things," he wrote with a laughing emoji alongside Bernard's screenshot of his fine.