The 10th stage of the Tour de France was halted on Tuesday after half a dozen climate activists tried to stop riders on the road.
The activists, one of them wearing a T-shirt saying "We have 989 days left", sat on the road around 22 miles from the finish in Megeve, a Reuters witness said.
The activists were pulled off the road by police following the protest, which caused a 10-minute delay to the race.
Stage leader Alberto Bettiol rode through a cloud of pink from a flare before being asked by a race official to step down from his bike just before organisers said the stage had been stopped.
Ten minutes later, race director Christian Prudhomme ordered racing to resume.
"Since the government doesn't care about the climate crisis, we need to come and take over the Tour de France to refocus attention on what matters for our survival," climate activists movement Derniere Renovation said in a statement.
"We need to make our government react as they lead us to the slaughterhouse."