Watching stage 18 yesterday I found myself laughing hysterically. Fans yelling screaming dressed up as superheros, weirdos or whatever. It's amazing they are allowed to run all over the course, or are they? Nevertheless very entertaining. I heard a statistic there are 300,000 spectators along the course. Some pic's of this season off the great internet.
I'll never forget seeing some mad Frenchman dressed up like a giant syringe running beside Armstrong on a climb.. Hilarious how right that prophetic syringe was!
Love the fans, and IMO this is how Golf fans should be. Fist Pic, the guy with the "tea cozy on his head"......lol.... Anyone guess where the quote comes from?...one of my fave movies. Yes they are nuts. I've watched a few stages and am amazed that no riders have been knocked down yet.
Did you see Richie Porte almost get pulled down by some fan's flag? Right after the "illegal" feeding on the 2nd Alps climb 2 days ago. MaryMary said that if she lived in France she would have some sort of annual costume she would wear to the climbing stages... where is Neptune this year????
We rode Mt Ventoux during this years TdF. It's crazy how many people are along the roadside on each stage. The atmosphere is like one big party. It was awesome being part of the 100th TdF celebration.
Sagan is a bit of a ham when it comes to the fans [video=youtube_share;6J7rbKn-Jkc]http://youtu.be/6J7rbKn-Jkc[/video]
They seriously need to barricade off some of those people, my wife was shocked how close the people are to the riders. I am really surprised about the lack of security for the riders, the motorcycles need to be closer to the riders so they can actually see where they are going and give them a little buffer zone from the fans. I remember when I think it was Lance ran over a fan in the TDF.
Thats the beauty of the sport. They will never change that. There is no other sport where fans can get so close to their favorite athletes. Will not happen in Baseball or Football. And for the most part the athletes like it too. The adrenalin rush from the screaming and cheering keeps them going. It also kills and strong headwind they maybe riding against
I agree it is cool tha they are close to the action but on some mountains stages the roads are so narrow it seems very dangerous for the rider. They can barely see 20 feet in front of them.
The fans being hat close might be pretty cool but its also very obvious that most are not doing it for the riders but themselves. They know the crazier and closer to the riders are the more likely they might be on TV.
My kids liked it when they saw some guys bare ass on tv last week during a the mountain stage. Really surprised they did not censor it.
