Professional Cycling - I remember when i was a kid, there was a TdF where a ton of riders fell of a cliff..

Am i going crazy or was this a TdF where a ton of riders just went over the cliff and died?


Someone refresh my memory.

Maybe you are going crazy ;) According to Bobke only 3 people have died in the TDF.

But a better tour historian can answer whether a stack of riders went over (maybe they just didn't die).

Can't comment on your sanity, but if you're referring to 5 or so years ago when you were a kid I'd have to say no. I've been following the TDF since 1986 and I can't remember any such event.

Maybe you are getting confused with the story from last week where hundreds of sheep died in Turkey when one sheep jumped off a cliff and hundreds of others followed like...uh...sheep.

Can't comment on your sanity, but if you're referring to 5 or so years ago when you were a kid I'd have to say no. I've been following the TDF since 1986 and I can't remember any such event.

Maybe you are getting confused with the story from last week where hundreds of sheep died in Turkey when one sheep jumped off a cliff and hundreds of others followed like...uh...sheep.

LOL

Can't comment on your sanity, but if you're referring to 5 or so years ago when you were a kid I'd have to say no. I've been following the TDF since 1986 and I can't remember any such event.

Maybe you are getting confused with the story from last week where hundreds of sheep died in Turkey when one sheep jumped off a cliff and hundreds of others followed like...uh...sheep.

LOL

Well it was about 10 years ago, about... and i remember seeing it on Fox maybe it wasnt the TdF but all these cyclists flew off the side of the wet road off a huge drop. Maybe they didnt die but it was a big thing

Maybe you are getting confused with the story from last week where hundreds of sheep died in Turkey when one sheep jumped off a cliff and hundreds of others followed like...uh...sheep.

...or it could have been the film about Lemmings.

"During the filming of the 1958 Disney nature documentary White Wilderness, the film crew induced lemmings into jumping off a cliff and into the sea in order to document their supposedly suicidal behavior."

Maybe it was on the "Wonderful World of Disney" at 6 o'clock, right after the TdF. Perhaps you just got confused and dreamed the whole thing. In itself, that wouldn't make you crazy. What are your other symptoms?

More info on Disney's scam White Wilderness:

Disney's White Wilderness was filmed in Alberta, Canada, which is not a native habitat for lemmings and has no outlet to the sea. Lemmings were imported for use in the film, purchased from Inuit children by the filmmakers. The Arctic rodents were placed on a snow-covered turntable and filmed from various angles to produce a "migration" sequence; afterwards, the helpless creatures were transported to a cliff overlooking a river and herded into the water. White Wilderness does not depict an actual lemming migration — at no time are more than a few dozen lemmings ever shown on the screen at once. The entire sequence was faked using a handful of lemmings deceptively photographed to create the illusion of a large herd of migrating creatures.

Lemming suicide is fiction. Contrary to popular belief, lemmings do not periodically hurl themselves off of cliffs and into the sea. Cyclical explosions in population do occasionally induce lemmings to attempt to migrate to areas of lesser population density. When such a migration occurs, some lemmings die by falling over cliffs or drowning in lakes or rivers. These deaths are not deliberate "suicide" attempts, however, but accidental deaths resulting from the lemmings' venturing into unfamiliar territories and being crowded and pushed over dangerous ledges. In fact, when the competition for food, space, or mates becomes too intense, lemmings are much more likely to kill each other than to kill themselves.

...or it could have been the film about Lemmings.

"During the filming of the 1958 Disney nature documentary White Wilderness, the film crew induced lemmings into jumping off a cliff and into the sea in order to document their supposedly suicidal behavior."

Maybe it was on the "Wonderful World of Disney" at 6 o'clock, right after the TdF. Perhaps you just got confused and dreamed the whole thing. In itself, that wouldn't make you crazy. What are your other symptoms?

More info on Disney's scam White Wilderness:

Disney's White Wilderness was filmed in Alberta, Canada, which is not a native habitat for lemmings and has no outlet to the sea. Lemmings were imported for use in the film, purchased from Inuit children by the filmmakers. The Arctic rodents were placed on a snow-covered turntable and filmed from various angles to produce a "migration" sequence; afterwards, the helpless creatures were transported to a cliff overlooking a river and herded into the water. White Wilderness does not depict an actual lemming migration — at no time are more than a few dozen lemmings ever shown on the screen at once. The entire sequence was faked using a handful of lemmings deceptively photographed to create the illusion of a large herd of migrating creatures.

Lemming suicide is fiction. Contrary to popular belief, lemmings do not periodically hurl themselves off of cliffs and into the sea. Cyclical explosions in population do occasionally induce lemmings to attempt to migrate to areas of lesser population density. When such a migration occurs, some lemmings die by falling over cliffs or drowning in lakes or rivers. These deaths are not deliberate "suicide" attempts, however, but accidental deaths resulting from the lemmings' venturing into unfamiliar territories and being crowded and pushed over dangerous ledges. In fact, when the competition for food, space, or mates becomes too intense, lemmings are much more likely to kill each other than to kill themselves.


Disney sucks. My favorite line from a Disney movie is from "Bambi", you know, the one where the mother is shot. There is a huge forest fire and Bambi's mom says "Man was in the forest". You gotta love Disney, go right for the throat of the children.

In 1957, a pioneering (Alex Virot - began in 1929) radio journalist and his moto driver went over a cliff and were killed. The photos have appeared in many places, the latest being the book Le Tour De France Pour La Liberte de la Presse just released by the group Reporters sans frontieres.

There was an Italian rider killed in the 1995 tour, i think there was a pile-up then. Several spectators have been struck by the camera bikes / squad cars and died. Lastly, I remember an elk jumped out in front of the riders before bombing off down the side of a mountain.

Maybe you are going crazy ;) According to Bobke only 3 people have died in the TDF.

But a better tour historian can answer whether a stack of riders went over (maybe they just didn't die).

Isn't it 2 deaths on Tour?

Simpson and Casartelli?

Isn't it 2 deaths on Tour?

Simpson and Casartelli?

There was another death a long time ago, may have even been pre-war. I think the rider was Spanish or Italian

There was another death a long time ago, may have even been pre-war. I think the rider was Spanish or Italian


alrighty then.

There has been 3 deaths during the race either due to crashes or organ collapse;

• 1995: July 18, stage 15: Italian racer Fabio Casartelli crashed at approximately 88km/h descending the Col de Portet d'Aspet. Casartelli, not wearing a helmet, received massive trauma to the top of his head from a concrete block. The injury exposed his brain and he died on the scene. He was going at such a high speed that doctors said even if he was wearing a helmet he wouldn't of lived.

* 1967: Friday July 13, Stage 13(Friday the 13th hugggh): English rider Tom Simpson died of heart failure on the ascent of Mont Ventoux. Amphetamines and alcohol were found in Simpson's jersey and bloodstream. His death prompted tour officials to begin a programme of drug testing.

* 1935: Spanish racer Francesco Cepeda died after plunging down a ravine on the Col du Galibier.


There was also a rider who was assassinated by Fascists in the 1927 Tour. Also a few suicides have occured before/after the race including a defending champ who hung himself before the 1907 race and not forgetting Pantani in recent years... both were drug related. Even Lance has faced the intense scrutiny from the foreign press about the drugs he used during his rehab from cancer.

On graham watson's web site, there's an couple of photos of a rider named Inaki Gaston, who has just had a bad crash. It looks like it was over an embankment and probably in the mountains. He looks dead, with blood all over his face (no helmets back then) and unconscious, but amazingly enough he didn't die. It looked really horrible!

I wrote Mr watson and asked him about the photo because it had no caption. He told me it was Inaki Gaston, a basque rider and it was in the tour, 1991 or 1992 (I can't remember). Gaston was a pretty accomplished rider, winning several spanish races like Catalan week. Obviously that was the end of his tour! However, he continued to ride and i think retired a couple of years later.

Discovery DS Johan Bruyneel went over the edge on the stage to Les Arcs is 1996.

Perreiro overcooked it and went off the road the other day too.

Happens all the time.

LOL

Well it was about 10 years ago, about... and i remember seeing it on Fox maybe it wasnt the TdF but all these cyclists flew off the side of the wet road off a huge drop. Maybe they didnt die but it was a big thing

Either you saw it more recently or you saw it not on Fox, methinks... Fox went on the air in late-ish 1996, I believe...

Dude, Fox has been on the air for quite some time "Married with Children" was a Fox show and started in 1987 and how long has "The Simpsons" been on?



Edit: Answer 1989. and it started as a bit on the Tracy Ullman show before that. Which also started in '87.

... maybe it wasnt the TdF but all these cyclists flew off the side of the wet road off a huge drop. ...
Ahhhh ...

Perhaps you are thinking of the Ocana crash on the Col de Mente in 1971, when he was chasing down Merckx in the driving rain. Two riders went (pretty) straight off a left hand switchback. The other was not badly hurt. Ocana was very badly hurt, and dropprd out as a result. No deaths, thankfully.

This clip is replayed on almost every retrospective show about the TdF.

Ahhhh ...

Perhaps you are thinking of the Ocana crash on the Col de Mente in 1971, when he was chasing down Merckx in the driving rain. Two riders went (pretty) straight off a left hand switchback. The other was not badly hurt. Ocana was very badly hurt, and dropprd out as a result. No deaths, thankfully.

This clip is replayed on almost every retrospective show about the TdF.


Merckx "lucky" to have won five?


Did you hear Paul dob in Phil the other day saying he used Ocana's cognac to clean the windscreen of his car?? Classic...

Dude, Fox has been on the air for quite some time "Married with Children" was a Fox show and started in 1987 and how long has "The Simpsons" been on?



Edit: Answer 1989. and it started as a bit on the Tracy Ullman show before that. Which also started in '87.


You're dead right - I thought you were making reference to Fox News Channel. My apologies!

Could you give an indication of when you were a kid ?
In 1996 tour, Johan Bruyneel of Belgium overshot a hairpin turn and fell off a cliff...

I'd guess by his user ID that he's 22 years old now...

It was probably another race, or a television station showing off their video editing skills...