Unruly tour spectators



Corzhens

Well-Known Member
May 26, 2015
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In the recent Tour de France, defending champion Chris Froome suffered a crash due to the unruly crowd. There was also the claim that some spectators were hitting Froome with the intention for him to crash. If that kind of crowd in tours will be prevalent, maybe the tour organizers should be stricter with the crowd control. I am not saying that those unruly spectators caused the loss of Froome for his 5th Tour title but that nasty incident had definitely cost him some lost time.
 
The ASO does a lousy job of protecting riders, that's nothing new and it's always been that way. Chris Froome was repeated spat at and physically assaulted at least once (the "fan" who took a swing at him was arrested), but he did not crash due to fan interference. Other riders were taken down by fans, but not Froome. Regardless, the biggest issue is the need to keep the fans further away from the riders, especially on the mountain finishes. IMO, the ASO needs to use larger vehicles that will force the fans to move aside and create room for the riders and they need to be ruthless about it. If a few stupid fans get hurt in the process, so be it; it's their own fault.

The other thing that absolutely must end is the idiots with flares that smoke up the course to the point that nobody can see well enough to be safe. Some arrest were made this year, but they need to be even more aggressive in dealing with that inexcusable nonsense.

One of the beauties of professional cycling is that fans can get close to the athletes, but all it takes is a few irresponsible morons to ruin it for everyone by affecting the outcome of races.

Lastly, the number of motorcycles buzzing around the riders needs to be reduced, as they are increasingly part of the problem, causing numerous crashes in recent years. There is absolutely no excuse for a "official" vehicles to cause accidents involving riders.