As expected this Tour was a thriller, and was pleased that poor Ullrich at least made third place.
However, can’t help but wonder if there is any sport anywhere in the world that has so many totally imbecillic spectators? Each year I’m appalled by their behavior and amazed that more racers are not injured. One would think that they’d be controlled behind fences. Oh, yeah, I forgot, it’s France!
I would say that plenty of other sports have higher proportions of idiotic spectators, but that their idiocy is more restrained by extra barriers and security that cycling doesn’t make use of.
Moving thread from IMHO to The BBQ Pit.
So, did Lance win again?
yes, Lance won.
I completely agree. I mean, if you like the guy and you want to cheer him on, don’t stand in front of his damn bicycle! if you don’t like him and you don’t want him to win, still don’t stand in front of his bicycle- wouldn’t it be better if your guy won fair and square?
Wasn’t there some incident with a spectator and a motorcycle? People are such idiots.
3000 km worth?
It is a shameful fact of the tour, I’m afraid.
Take satisfaction in that one of the morons tried to bop a rider on the head with his thunderstick and got run over by one of the camera/pursuit motorcycles.
Golf.
I’m not saying that cycling SHOULD have 3000 km of cement walls topped with razor wire and armed guards. I’m just saying that it is a relatively unguarded sport, relying on the good sense of its spectators (which most of them have).
And how rude is it to fling the backwash in your waterbottle at the riders as they go by? It is obvious that it not welcome by the riders (especially Lance). Why do people do it?
During the old Mille Miglia road race on real Italian roads they used to have problems with fans crowding the course so that cars could barely pass or running across the road thinking they could beat a Ferrari moving at 160 mph. I’m surprised that only between 21 and 25 of them got killed over the years.
Same thing happens in rally. Spectators are all over the place, and every once in a while, one of them gets killed. Rally in the US has taken very extreme steps in controlling spectators the past two years after two spectators were run over by a car. It’s different in Europe.
I heard a rumor that when removing the hoods from Subaru cars after races, it was not entirely unusual to find, in the engine bay, fingers that had been neatly removed from spectators by the car’s hood scoop. :eek:
Um . . . ew?
What a peculiarly appropriate username to post this anecdote.
Well, then stay off the road! Cars coming through, here! Want to keep your fingers, don’t get them near hood scoops. 
Also, a few years ago a boy on the side of a mountian road caught his plastic bag on Lance’s handlebars and made him crash, which made the rider behind him hit him and crash.
It turns out maybe the boy did Lance a favor, because he got mad and won the stage, even though IIRC his pedal was slightly broken.
I think Lance took responsibilty for this. He didn’t blame the boy.
This is the one of 2 things that makes it painful for me to watch the tour (the other being that OLN shows the same four commercials every break).
I was watching and saying to my wife “Look at those idiots. Is that really a proud moment for them to run in front of the bikes and scream? I hope one of them trips and gets run over.” Two minutes later we got the spectator falling in front of the motorcycle.
The riders say, “It’s part of the challenge”, and yes, it would be insanely expensive to fence off the entire length of the race, but SOMETHING should be done.
(yeah I know it’s lame to say DO SOMETHING without making a suggestion) :smack: