Originally Posted by GV27

I do agree with the dude with the antlers. One race I saw he was running ahead of the riders and not spectating whatsoever. He had his eyes straight up the road, head back, like he was in a race of his own. Obviously all he wants to do is get on TV and doesn't care about the racing. If you watch the European races most of those folks run next to the riders yelling encouragement (or discouragement I suppose, but that's rare). This thing of running ahead of the riders and missing the race entirely is weird.

OTOH, have you guys ever actually been to a big-time bike race? It's really cool being able to get within such close proximity of the stars. And all they do is come by once so being able to run beside the break gives you a longer spectating window. It's super cool. And the atmosphere is amazing. Completely different from sitting in the stands in a stadium.

Part of the problem is the Lance factor. We Americans have a unique (or at least uniquely-strong) hunger for publicity. So we see The Devil and everyone want to be The Devil. So that produces some uniquely obnoxious fans - the dude with the Antlers is an American. The European fans can certainly be obnoxious and especially obnoxiously over-served but that's been pro bike racing forever. The American fans, unfortunately, have stepped it up a notch. Plus we're just not very good at it - there were less spectators for the ToC but they sure created more havoc compared to the Giro. I think it's fair to say that every American (obviously there are always exceptions to everything) is either a Lance fan or an anti-Lance fan. Once he's retired for good the situation will get better.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not blaming Americans entirely. In fact the "problem" is mostly a European one. A fan ended Merckx's TdF run in 1975 with a punch long before any American had even heard of the race. We just seem to have stepped things up a bit and are really lousy (or good? depends on point of view) at cycling hooliganism.

But this sort of thing has always been part of pro cycling and is one of the things that makes cycling uniquely wonderful in the world of pro sports.

Chris

edit: here's a picture of that moron on Universal Sports this morning. DUDE - The race is behind you! BEHIND YOU!