the tour, Spoiler Alert: Christopher Columbus finally made it

[savechief]

I like Contador's approach for dealing with unruly fans:
https://youtu.be/O0W__FNIGwA

[Bruce K]

Please keep specific rider names/nees out of thread titles.

People are complaining

BK

[Seramount]

riders should just stop and pummel the crap out of jerkwad spectators that interfere with their lines, spit on them, etc...

no time penalties for doing this.

[Cloozoe]

Originally Posted by djg

Ok, no names or results here . . . but

Agreed -- I get the tradition, and atmosphere -- and the sheer length and geographic complexity of the course means you have to be somewhat selective about where you deploy what sort of route security. But it's just nuts on the major climbs and it's been that way for quite a while. Whatever risks bike racing entails . . . well, racing-ending-injury-by-idiot-fan because the world's most famous road race cannot give riders a single bike-lane wide path up a mountain has nothing to do with racing.

Shoving your way physically through fans, or their signs or capes, or their camera equipment - the shoving, the spitting, the flares and smoke bombs . . . the sheer idiocy of some of the drunken obstruction. You're trying to climb l'alpe at tour pace, at that stage in the race (or whatever stage in whatever year), and then . . . what? I get the luck of the day, and this and that, and bumping and racing, but the crazy is beyond the pale -- at some point it's absurd.

I'm with you. Obviously it's a very cool thing --even putting tradition aside-- to be able to watch world class athletes in the marquis event in a spectacular setting from mere feet away.

And if everyone was sane they'd do what you and I and most people would do: make sure to stay out of the way, clap, cheer, yell, smile a lot.

But to expect that kind of sanity not from most people but from all people is obviously not realistic. It's amazing to me that the consequences have not been even worse, but one of these days there will be a true catastrophe and that'll be that. My question? Why wait? Has to be some sort of reasonable middle ground that would reduce exposure of the riders to danger without turning it into airport security.

[e-RICHIE]

Originally Posted by David Tollefson

Anyone remember the gendarme that took out Djimoulidin Abdujaparov in a finish sprint trying to take a pic?

It wasn't Djimoulidin Abdujaparov.
It was Wilfried Nelissen (and also Jalabert).

[Elefantino]

At the Giro last year I spoke with some English-speaking tifosi who agreed it would be a great idea if we threw anyone who lit a flare or smoke bomb off the ************* mountain.

No one did, fortunately (or unfortunately).

[weisan]

Originally Posted by e-RICHIE

It wasn't Djimoulidin Abdujaparov.
It was Wilfried Nelissen (and also Jalabert).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pya6ZVW-oKg

[David Tollefson]

Originally Posted by e-RICHIE

It wasn't Djimoulidin Abdujaparov.
It was Wilfried Nelissen (and also Jalabert).

Ah, yes. Thanks.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by loxx0050

That guy better lawyer up. If I was Niboli's sponsor I'd sue him for ruining the team's biggest race of the year if he indeed was the cause of the crash/injury.

The Bahrain-Merida team have confirmed to Cyclingnews that they are considering legal action against the organisers of the Tour de France after team leader Vincenzo Nibali was brought down and fractured a vertebrae in a chaotic incident on the climb to L’Alpe d’Huez.

Bet the fan is into the wind...

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Bet the fan is into the wind...

He is, and I would also argue he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary for a major GT climb. Onus is on the ASO, in my opinion, to define what the norm is and provide safety for the riders.