So, what do we do with spectators?

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

https://twitter.com/ProCyclingStats/status/754567917245755392

 

[DFA123]

Re:

https://twitter.com/ProCyclingStats/status/754567917245755392

That's ridiculous. Surely the guy must have done that deliberately. If so, there's pretty much nothing you can do to stop it unfortunately.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

At least the guy has been arrested. And yes, there were numerous injuries :-(

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

You can have a good atmosphere without having the fans so close to the riders. If people have lost their sense of responsibility and basic social skills, then let's have barriers. Here's Mont Ventoux before the clowns:

Pretty good stuff, I'd say. No harm in not having hordes of crazed people swarmed around the riders. If people cannot behave normally by themselves, then, like children, someone must force them to. Or at least impede that their shenanigans and selfishness affect the outcome of races.

The same applies to the many hairpins of Alpe d'Huez, especially the Dutch corner. Don't feed me that baseless and outright fake crap that the race and the spectale would lose by having those crowds forced to the sides of the road. What kills the spectacle is seeing the flocks of drunkards jumping in front of riders and obstructing the road to the point attacks become impossible. At the end of the day it gives nice TV shots and a good photoreportage over at cyclingquotes, and nothing more. Don't tell me it's worth it. It's not.

100% agreed.

 

[willbick]

Re:

I usually dismiss nostalgic dreams about how great things were in the past, and insist that people have always been the same, but that picture tells a different story.

When adults were grown up!

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

You can have a good atmosphere without having the fans so close to the riders. If people have lost their sense of responsibility and basic social skills, then let's have barriers. Here's Mont Ventoux before the clowns:

Pretty good stuff, I'd say. No harm in not having hordes of crazed people swarmed around the riders. If people cannot behave normally by themselves, then, like children, someone must force them to. Or at least impede that their shenanigans and selfishness affect the outcome of races.

The same applies to the many hairpins of Alpe d'Huez, especially the Dutch corner. Don't feed me that baseless and outright fake crap that the race and the spectale would lose by having those crowds forced to the sides of the road. What kills the spectacle is seeing the flocks of drunkards jumping in front of riders and obstructing the road to the point attacks become impossible. At the end of the day it gives nice TV shots and a good photoreportage over at cyclingquotes, and nothing more. Don't tell me it's worth it. It's not.

I'm glad you posted that pic! These people are cycling fans who came to see a bike race. Today many (maybe most) of the people on the climbs came for a party and a selfie, and don't care about the bike race (or the racers).

 

[Tonton]

Re:

You can have a good atmosphere without having the fans so close to the riders. If people have lost their sense of responsibility and basic social skills, then let's have barriers. Here's Mont Ventoux before the clowns:

Pretty good stuff, I'd say. No harm in not having hordes of crazed people swarmed around the riders. If people cannot behave normally by themselves, then, like children, someone must force them to. Or at least impede that their shenanigans and selfishness affect the outcome of races.

The same applies to the many hairpins of Alpe d'Huez, especially the Dutch corner. Don't feed me that baseless and outright fake crap that the race and the spectale would lose by having those crowds forced to the sides of the road. What kills the spectacle is seeing the flocks of drunkards jumping in front of riders and obstructing the road to the point attacks become impossible. At the end of the day it gives nice TV shots and a good photoreportage over at cyclingquotes, and nothing more. Don't tell me it's worth it. It's not.

Well said!

 

[coimbrawu]

Re: Re:

https://twitter.com/ProCyclingStats/status/754567917245755392

That's ridiculous. Surely the guy must have done that deliberately. If so, there's pretty much nothing you can do to stop it unfortunately.

The guy is dysgnosia. You can see the video: http://weibo.com/p/2304444109b83fdd17572ed22f5f5d54452566 He still didn't know what happened. There are barriers and policemen in the last kilometers but he somehow sneak into the course.

But There is another accident related to motor: http://weibo.com/p/2304442f2a964277bcd1077ebd8d715c63cc91 Which is just few kilometers after race began.

 

[casati]

Re: Re:

You can have a good atmosphere without having the fans so close to the riders. If people have lost their sense of responsibility and basic social skills, then let's have barriers. Here's Mont Ventoux before the clowns:

Pretty good stuff, I'd say. No harm in not having hordes of crazed people swarmed around the riders. If people cannot behave normally by themselves, then, like children, someone must force them to. Or at least impede that their shenanigans and selfishness affect the outcome of races.

The same applies to the many hairpins of Alpe d'Huez, especially the Dutch corner. Don't feed me that baseless and outright fake crap that the race and the spectale would lose by having those crowds forced to the sides of the road. What kills the spectacle is seeing the flocks of drunkards jumping in front of riders and obstructing the road to the point attacks become impossible. At the end of the day it gives nice TV shots and a good photoreportage over at cyclingquotes, and nothing more. Don't tell me it's worth it. It's not.

Well said!

This is only fantasy but they should ban selfies and give out summons for violating this rule but as we know this is impossible. Too many races have been affected by fans getting in the way.

 

[jmdirt]

Is public stoning an option? Too barbaric you say? Interfering with someone's livelihood seems pretty barbaric too. What would happen if someone knocked you out of your office, destroying a project that you had worked on for years, what would happen to them? Wouldn't there be legal consequences? Jail time, fines, public service...?!

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Suing for lost revenue should certainly be on the table.

 

[PatrickLeeds]

Do they have volunteers? I think the Tourmakers at the Tour de france in the UK and at the Tour De Yorkshire were useful - they were given a basic training in how to deal with crowds, and spent the whole day on the route, in which time they built up enough of a rapport with the crowd that they made quite useful crowd-controllers.

But at bottom I suspect alcohol is the issue with most of the idiots. The very best crowd-controller is powerless if the fans are too p*ssed to pay any attention to the fundamental rules of behaviour. On an open event banning alcohol is not a realistic possibility, but I would say if the Police and Volunteers are empowered to say 'you are too drunk, go home' it might help.

'And How do you know I am drunk? Huh? Huh?'
'Because a sober human being would not be wearing a luminous squirrel costume with a giant rubber willy hat, mate. Down the Mountain you go.'

I think Didi the devil has something to answer for here.