Fans dumping drinks on Lance
 

sorry if this was discussed in one of the other threads but I didn't see it.

They showed a picture of a fan dumping a drink (Beer?) right into Lance's face during the last ITT. Has anything been made of this? Is this a common thing to cool off riders with cold drink, or was this a malicious attack on Lance?

I've seen drinks thrown in all the riders faces. They seem to like dunking cold water on the riders as they pass. Frankly, I'd be pretty PO'ed, but I think the riders are just used to it.

Koffee

Didn't fans also spit on L.A. in previous years? He must be the most patient man on Earth.

Let's see ... I am busting a gut trying to set a record that will in all probabilty never be broken, and some idiot throws water on me in a misguided attempt to {get on TV; help me by cooling me down; some other reason - pick one}. What do I do? What do I do? I know, I will stop, turn around, and kick some butt!

Seems like an unlikely scenario to me. :rolleyes:

It's France in the summer, it's hot! Having ridden about 100 miles today, I'd welcome water thrown on my back or my head, anywhere. Just not up my nose. :eek:

About the spit, that's just unfortunate :o

I think the team car should be armed with paintball guns so they can tag any unruly fan as they pass by. That would also mark them for the police to come along for some police brutality.

Saturday I was out on a 50-mile ride and came upon an enormous irrigation rig that was spewing water over the road from one cornfield to another. Just as I approached the spraying arm swung over, and the water stream hit me dead on at 19 mph. I got soaked, but it felt good! I'm glad it wasn't a beer.

Well, if some fan tosses a cup of liquid into your face, you would HOPE it is water. And, if it was yellow, you HOPE it was beer.

It would be interested to compare video of the fans' behavior this year with three years ago, or seven years ago. To my old and fading memory, the number of fans getting in the way of riders seemed higher this year than ever before. But, my recollection that fans were slightly less obnoxious in the past could be mistaken...when you get old, your memory is the first thing to go...or the second...maybe it's the third...hard to remember which...what WERE we talking about....

i think the tour security is an absolute joke. They do a great job in the last couple of K, but they need to take the same precautions on all of the climbs. I would think it gets to the point of being dangerous when the riders can't see the road in front of them, or when a fan gets run over by a camera bike.

I second this method.... :D

In these days of terrorism I can't believe the terrorist didn't use the tour to make a statement. Think of the possibilities. Acid instead of water, blowing oneself up as the peleton passes........ I think we are lucky this race takes place in France instead of US or England.

i wasn't saying they should fence off the whole course, but i bet they could manage to do it on some of the major climbs. Do you really think the tour, especially in recent years, doesn't have the money to get some sort of security or barriers on the climbs?

France gets a pass....

Actaully, as morbid as it is, I was thinking the same thing.....the world today....

I see Lance do a major flinch at those "spitzings". I would think it could totally mess up a normal persons concentration. Still, I think he's lucky there was nothing ever worse thrown at him considering some stupid jealous idiots really don't like him.

I did an adventure race a few years back in the searing summer heat. We had to run underneath a road crossing in a pedestrian tunnel. ON the other end was a waiting irrigation truck and they had a big hose spraying water on anyone coming out of the tunnel. It was a welcome surprise to all of us.

I think they should just use motorcycles with cameramen to escort the bicycles. Unruly fans could then just be run over by the motorcycles. Oh wait!, somebody already thought of that....... :rolleyes: