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L’Alpe d’Huez. photo Bryan77
Watching the Tour de France stage to Alpe d’Huez I was in two minds about the spectators. Was this the greatest collection of sporting fans in the world? or the craziest and most dangerous?
Watching the riders battle through a sea of flags, cameras, running spectators, people dressed as giant condoms – is a truly bizarre situation. There must be few more annoying things than dying up your second ascent of Alpe d’huez only to face the indignity of a guy in a mannequin and large beer belly running past you in a zig zag fashion draping a flag over your back wheel.
How there are not more accidents is truly surprising. So much for the dangerous descent off Alpe d’Huez. The true danger was climbing through the hordes of spectators, flags and cameras on poles.
Yesterday was a really gripping day of racing, yet in a perverse way your eyes kept drifting away from the action and looking at spectators. But, then when you saw how some spectators were dressed, you felt slightly nauseous. Though in the climb, I did spot an Ilkley CC top, and I did spot Simon Warren’s 100 climb flag.
Dutch spectators having a good time, but I don’t think they would be allowed in the Lord’s Pavilion.
David Walsh (journalist at Sunday Times) made the comment that being in the Team Sky car was like being a Manchester United supporter walking around Liverpool.
L’Alpe d’Huez. photo Bryan77
Like Moses parting the sea. This time it’s Lance Armstrong in the background.
Spectators in the Tour
The Devil at the Tour de France – from Loving Photography
They say cyclists are a strange breed, and who can blame them – shaving legs, tight fitting lycra, masochistic training and racing schedules. But, that’s nothing compared to the strange breed of people who go to watch the Tour de France.
I’ve never made it to the Tour de France, though I remember sitting for quite a few hours in our car whilst on holiday in France. We were shocked to learn roads could be closed all day for the benefit of a small cycle race called the Tour de France. (As a youngster on holiday, I remember thinking – this was a strange country – not only did they speak a foreign language and serve steak dripping with blood, they also gave priority to cyclists over motorists.)
Anyway, I have been to see a few professional cycle races. The hours of eager anticipation, admiring the empty roads, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the cyclists. Then the flotilla of cars, and then the breakaway – wow, they are going so fast. A few more minutes, then the peleton comes, the riders look pretty relaxed as they gently pedal along at 27mph. Before you can say ‘that’s very impressive, ther’re gone. Only the flotilla of following cars and service cars.
Here’s a few of the Spectator Types at the Tour.
The Runners – usually drunk and wearing a silly outfit like a ‘I love Texas T-shirt’ replete with bull horns. (though the I Love Texas T-Shirt is not quite as common as they used to be) If they don’t have a silly T-Shirt they usually will have a sunburnt beer belly which they proudly display. Perhaps they just want to show – look at me – I’m fat, ugly and drunk, but I can still run up an Alpine pass for two minutes. These over-enthusiastic supporters have the ability to irritate everyone – the cyclists, other spectators, the race officials. It’s a marvellous example of egoistic exhibition. When watching I always get distracted from the actual cycling and start wishing and hoping that someone will just rugby tackle them into an Alpine ravine. Can you imagine travelling to watch the tour with all the time and money it entails; then, after waiting for days with sunburn and dehydration, and just as Contador and Froome are duelling with each other in mountains, the only thing you see is the back of a “I love Texas T-shirt worn by a guy with fists flying up and down? Yes, thanks a lot guys.
The Devil. What more can I say. Perhaps how appropriate the devil supports the Tour De France
Good old English Spectators at Houses of Parliament
Photo by Tristam Sparks
All I can ever think when I see them is how I feel when I’m going up a steep incline. In all the pain, small things can seem impossibly annoying, like a car that won’t overtake me because the road’s too narrow and there’s a blind corner. Really, it’s perfectly responsible, thoughtful behaviour, but in that emotional state, it drives me mental.
If a drunk, sprinting pedestrian were to nudge me sideways while I was in that kind of an emotional state, I can’t imagine just how much I’d hate them. There just seems to be a complete lack of empathy with the riders.
There have been some truly horrendous sights at the TdF – all male and all probably drunk, as you say. I dislike the “mooning” at the camera though, God knows, I have thought it funny to do in the past! Perhaps I’m too old?
But all of those mankini’ed ugly men can be forgiven – perhaps – if they were able to keep the over-enthusiastic idiot fans out of the cyclists way! They infuriate me with their selfish desire to slap the poor cyclists on their backs, or flag waving in the face/wheel/gears/chain. The photographers seem to think it is acceptable to squat in the race line for a photo and that the cyclist will go around them. I think the cyclists should fit blades to their hubs a la ‘Ben Hur’ chariot racers
Yep, I must be too old.