What should be done about idiotic spectators?

[the sceptic]

I propose that touching a rider should be illegal and anyone who does it should be identified and given a hefty fine. And also spread those army people or whatever it is more evenly instead of having everyone on the top.

 

[Roadie59]

Ban the Fans

RE: Zoncolan: BAN THE FANS...all fans should be banned from any climb of consequence from now own...they are plainly not there for the riders but for themselves.....I feel very sad for our sport when I see the intense idiocy on the course that actually impacts the ability of the competitors to ride the race unimpeded...

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Shot them.

 

[Red Rick]

huge fines, use the money to support races in trouble. It's a win/win

 

[Roadie59]

RE: Zoncolan: BAN THE FANS...all fans should be banned from any climb of consequence from now own...they are plainly not there for the riders but for themselves.....I feel very sad for our sport when I see the intense idiocy on the course that actually impacts the ability of the competitors to ride the race unimpeded...

 

[SeriousSam]

I hate those goddamn attention whoring ******s that invariably show up for the MTF

 

[Libertine Seguros]

 

[Arnout]

Less motards with journalists, more with guns. Machine guns preferably.

 

[classicomano]

Belgian commentators talked about throwing them into the ravine, im totally ok with this.

 

[Red Rick]

Killing them is kind of, you know not want you want to do with the audience

 

[Linkinito]

Film them, arrest them, throw them into custody for 72 hours, then ask them to pay a huge fine.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

RE: Zoncolan: BAN THE FANS...all fans should be banned from any climb of consequence from now own...they are plainly not there for the riders but for themselves.....I feel very sad for our sport when I see the intense idiocy on the course that actually impacts the ability of the competitors to ride the race unimpeded...

No way on earth. I've been to a few races where we've had to walk a 20-25km round trip up to places on climbs along with thousands of fans. It's a special atmosphere, people calling out from cheap radios tuned to pick up the race radio, battery-powered TVs and twitter updates the race situation, and then the riders going by and everyone cheering everybody, regardless of race situation, shouting out the names of riders they recognise going by... there are hundreds of thousands of fans who go out onto the roads and take advantage of the fact that cycling is free to see (unless you want to see the Ronde van Vlaanderen on the Oude Kwaremont). You get talking to the most different of people as you stake out a spot with great views long before the race. You re-watch old ascents of the same climb to see where the decisive moves and best views are... it's really something and the sport would lose a lot of its romance if they banned spectators. Yes, there are idiots. Maybe they should have more race marshals responsible for the fans, maybe the barriers should be extended lower down especially on narrow climbs, but under no circumstances should fans be banned.

 

[lenric]

I agree with the fines. Imagine that a random guy would try to help Contador and instead he fell off the bike. That would be totally ****ed up. If I were Contador I'd punch him.
Something needs to be done, and I'm concerned that it will only happen when a guy who's fighting for the GC, especially in TdF, gets screwed.

 

[hrotha]

Stop showing them on TV for starters. Too many of them are attention *****s.

Next step, self-regulation. The other spectators should gang up on them to get them to stop that ****.

For this kind of climb (and they're the only ones where this is a serious problem), fencing the whole road off or having policemen every few meters should be doable.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Killing them is kind of, you know not want you want to do with the audience

You made me think about the Bill Hicks routine about Judas Priest...

"What kind of a band wants its audience to be dead?"

"'ere, Nigel... I've just had a brilliant idea! What if... right, what if we... kill the f****** audience?"

 

[BigMac]

Nothing can be done. Deal with it.

 

[Afrank]

I've merged the two threads that were created on this.

The fans today were some of the biggest idiots I have every seen! Stupidity on a grand scale. Was so p!ssed at the fan that messed up Bongiorno. If at all possible I would like to see those types of fans banned from ever attending a bike race of any kind ever again.

Sadly there isn't a ton that can be done with cycling being such a open sport. So I think the riders need to show some aggressiveness with the fans. If a fan is annoying them or getting in the way, give them a good hard punch. They need to set the example to all fans that this kind of stuff is dangerous and that they need to stay out of the riders way!

 

[the sceptic]

the guy that ruined the stage for Bongiorno, I still saw him running and acting like an idiot even after that. How *** do you have to be to not even stop acting like a *** after you ruin the day for one of the riders. What a tool that guy is.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Let them watch stage 20 ten times in full on the telly.

 

[phanatic]

If the race directors can't be trusted, what do you expect of the fans?

 

[Wallace]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUP3A9imOYU

 

[Arnout]

the guy that ruined the stage for Bongiorno, I still saw him running and acting like an idiot even after that. How *** do you have to be to not even stop acting like a *** after you ruin the day for one of the riders. What a tool that guy is.

You know I saw him looking after the contact with Bongiorno and I thought it was a look of shock. But as he didn't change his behavior I think he blamed Bongiorno for the accident. The self-entitlement of idiots like that is so big that nothing will help other than serious sanctions. Fines, jail, shooting, that kind of thing.

 

[Arnout]

Stop showing them on TV for starters. Too many of them are attention *****s.

Next step, self-regulation. The other spectators should gang up on them to get them to stop that ****.

For this kind of climb (and they're the only ones where this is a serious problem), fencing the whole road off or having policemen every few meters should be doable.

Thing with self-regulation is that most of the fans are there to look at the race, support their favorites, whatever. I can't blame them for not wanting to get involved in a fight on the exact moment the race passes. I think having more policemen is the most realistic option.

 

[SeriousSam]

there was a hilarious occurrence last year where one of those retards was running along side a rider at touching distance until another spectator tripped him, anyone remember where that was?

 

[DonMI6]

There must have been 500 police lining both sides of the route in the last 1km. Surely they could have been evenly spaced down the mountain to deal with the fans.