Mr_Christopher

What is up with spectators spraying water on riders, and even getting in their way? I noticed this more on Wednesday, some dork sprayed AC and AS with water, AC was clearly non-plussed about it. And you see people jump out in front and almost block the riders path, and a few people reached out to pat AC on the back as he road on.

Holy hell what is up with that and do they make any attempt to control the crowd?

Andy Somnifac 

Please let us know a good way to control a crowd across a route of 100-125 miles, nearly every day, for 3 weeks?

hiker88

Yea, I saw the pat on AC shoulder that seemed to bother him. The guy was in actualy in front of AC and you could see the 'pat' knock his left shoulder back a bit. AC kind of looked over his shoulder and then shook his head as if to say, "what an idiot".

Some would say it's part of bike racing, but with the recent events at the world cup, I wish they would use more barriers in the steep sections.

They are expecting crowds in the MILLIONS once they get into the Pyrennes.

cthenn

I too have noticed that AC seems to be bothered by the crowd. Not good if you want to race in grand tours. Armstrong constantly talked about the abuse he got from German fans during the Ullrich years, yet you rarely saw him actually break his focus from the race and glare at them. AC needs to just suck it up and stop responding to these guys. If it's noticeable to me on TV, you know some knuckleheads will see that in France and harrass AC even more.

Wait until AC wins 5 in a row and the crowds get tired of yet another guy (non French) dominating the event...

Slater4545

With all those fans standing in the road I'm amazed that are not more rider/fan collisions. Just make sure their dog is on a leash.

walie

is this your first time watching Le Tour?

Creatre

A lot fans do some crazy things during the Mountain stages, and there have been a lot of close calls. Very rarely though does a fan go above and beyond and actually cause a problem. Think Armstrong with the bag or whatever on that one mountain stage in 2003, where his handlebar caught it. Every once in a while you will see a rider react to someone getting too close, or touching them too much. All the riders do it, and I saw what Contador did the other day and don't have a problem with it. A couple years ago someone actually punched a fan, so I would think Contador's case wasn't that bad.

Mr_Christopher

Yeah AC made that same face when a dork threw water on him and AS. I'm all for women flashing the riders though, that's different. I bet there is all sorts of stuff we don't see that they do.

Mr_Christopher

No, but it's my first time to comment on the sheer stupidity of some of the crowd. Not to mention the animals, didn't a dog cause one of the early pile ups?

Tinton

Contador wasn't the worst. I saw Schleck slap at spectators at least twice on the same climb. Maybe it was just a gesticulation, but he didn't look to happy.

Slater4545

A dog caused a crash in Stage 1 with 166 km remaining. There may have been other incidents this year, but that was the only one I saw.

blue_neon

I agree, the crowd seems more restless over this past week. Probably just the HEAT!

Creatre

Yeah the dog incident was bad. That should just not happen, people should know better than to have their dog without a leash by the TdF.

dstrong 

2009 TOC. Lance pushes the "LiveClean Devil" into the snow.

walie

Armstrong had German fans yell and spit on him during the Alpe d'Huez time trial, Giuseppe Guerini rode into a fan taking a picture who didn't get out of the way in time, also in Alpe d'Huez

it happens

exhumed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQgWWceYwbY

HigherGround

Sometimes chlorine gets added to the gene pool:

HigherGround

Then there was the time when Wladimir Belli punched an over-zealous spectator at the Giro d'Italia.



The person on the receiving end of the punch ended up being a relative of Gilberto Simoni, who was leading the Giro at that time. Doh!

rogwilco

The crowds often piss me off to, when people are running along, getting into the cyclists path etc, but I think this throwing water thing is not meant as an offense; I think I read an interview once where a cyclist said he appreciates that because it has a cooling effect in the heat, what he really hated was pushed by specators (even if that's also meant well).

Jed19

Dog? I saw a pig take off into the hills the other day. What I wasn't sure of, was whether it was wild or domestic.

Just imagine a pig running into a cyclist or the peloton.

prettyshady

I like to spectate at cycling races, but Its a terrible sport to spectate. You travel a long way to get there, find all the roads around the place you want to spectate are closed.

Car parking is difficault, and for some stages we have had to walk along way to get to the tour road. Then there is the wait, sometimes 3 hours. You go early to pick a good place and to see the tour caravans go past

As for crazy Spectators, after parking the motorhome the day before, drinking alot and waiting all day, running along side seems alot better than watchign the riders flash past.

Also people really want to be on TV, alot of people turnaround to face the helicopter and have there backs to the race because they are so busy waving to the helicopters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3-2YkGnmII - me on TV, redwhite stripe top.

The running along side thing tends to happen near the top, so if you don't want people running infront of you try and watch lower down the mountain. The police are very forceful at the crowd controll, I am always surprised at how well behaved the crowd are to the riders, it could be alot worse than splashing water and sticking cameras in faces

prettyshady

I was watching the eurosport live feed, yesturday and Sean Kelly told a story off when a Dog jumepd of a balcony into the peleton causing a big crash.

See also, the famous horse.

rogwilco

Haha, that's awesome.

eddiepliers 

Dude, don't a bike to a horserace.

helgi

One thing to spray water in the mountains, but I saw someone throw water all over the leaders yesterday when they were coming out of the final corner before the bunch sprint