Ideas about how to fix the issues with some road side fans?

[Oliwright]

I thought after Chris Froome running up Mont Ventoux & the spate of terrorist attacks that happened in France that summer that ASO would finally get serious about protecting the health of the athletes & the dangerous reality they face. Alas, they haven't done enough and in Nibali, we lost one of the riders who could have won this race and brought it to Sky.

There are so many occasions when fan's make it impossible for riders to attack and also dangerous for them to do their jobs. Surely it's time that the national police in attendance at races, to start arresting and prosecuting fans for assault, and other dangerous activity they take part in, like smoke flares?

I also worry that animosity against riders might end up with much more serious altercations than a rider being hit or falling off his bike. It wouldn't be difficult for someone with terrible intentions to cause serious bodily harm to a cyclist and this has happened in other sports eg Tennis & Monica Seles.

Having barriers up on climbs sucks, but for me it's a better option than the likely eventually scenario of a rider being seriously injured because ASO wants the TV picture to look better.

Cycling is often too reactionary as a sport and I think ASO need to think about the worse case scenarios and also the lost excitement when riders are injured from spectators' stupidity.
Hypothetical situation: 'A team sky rider receives life-threatening injuries after a fan pushes him off a climb and down a mountain', that could well lead to the Tour de France being suspended and stages being canceled. Let alone of the fact that Sky, or whichever team was in that situation, would sue ASO for 10s of millions of euros.

Would any other sport, just stand by while it's athletes were assaulted and put in danger? Recent years have seen cyclists die at races and I think fans need to get out of their tribal mentalities and realize that actions have consequences, because if things get worse and they easily could, then it could ruin cycling for years to come.

Lastly, I for one sincerely hope Bahrain sue the **** out of ASO and make them pay 50%+ of Nibali's salary.
ASO are such a virus on the sport by being so incredibly selfish with TV revenues and Tour de France admission, that I hope them being sued will make them finally take their responsibilities seriously, for the benefit of all of cycling.

How do you think Cycling should fix this problem? And are you as worried about it as me?

 

[Red Rick]

Lift your hands in the air and say 'that's not my job' while looking at somebody else.

 

[yaco]

Barriering off complete mountain passes or strategic bergs or cobbled sections is never 100% fail-safe and its implementation and costs are prohibitive - I am more concerned in ensuring that the threats from road furniture are minimised as this is a greater threat to rider's safety.

 

[hrotha]

Barriers might be too expensive, but cordoning off the climbs (or at least more of them) should be more affordable and despite its obvious shortcomings it might still work pretty well.

 

[Leinster]

Watching the Mende stage with my wife (not a seasoned cycling watcher) she couldn't believe how close the spectators were allowed get to the riders. It was just as well she hadn’t watched Alpe d’Huez.

Putting more barriers in and creating more separation between riders and fans is probably a backwards step for cycling though. The nutjobs running alongside up a 10% slope, as much as we hand-wring about them, are part of the spectacle, provided they don’t actually touch the riders.

I don’t envy ASO having to thread a tricky needle here, though obviously whatever solution is decided on, athlete safety needs to be the primary consideration.