16 Jul | 15th stage | 180 km | Les Gets - Saint Gervais Mont-Blanc | Mountain | Live Tracker | Results
The underappreciated Teams competition is unusually competitive. The time gap between the top 4 teams at this stage in the race over the last 10 races is as follows:
2014 - 47:44 2015 - 36:07 2016 - 38:59 2017 - 70:50 2018 - 47:43 2019 - 36:22 2020 - 37:43 2021 - 32:02 2022 - 64:39 2023 - 10:22Jumbo-Visma, Ineos, UAE and Bahrain are in a battle for the ages. And no-one cares.
It’s funny, I’ve noticed the yellow helmets and number tags changing teams a lot this year, so I’ve been following it. It’s been as close as the GC!
The last time I took notice was during the Movistar trident days, when nobody cared except them.
So it appears the big crash was caused by a spectator more focused on filming with his phone than the actual riders. Absolute wanker
I feel like two things make spectators not care / assume no consequences:
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the lady with the sign that caused the crash 2(?) years ago had no consequences at all, not even fined.
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the police that’s around the route and especially on mountain stages are extremely passive. They just stand to the side and watch the show without doing anything at all.
If nobody of authority says something and there’s no consequences, then nothing will change.
the lady with the sign that caused the crash 2(?) years ago had no consequences at all, not even fined.
Are you sure about that? Maybe they ended up waiving the fines in the end, but reports at the time were that she was arrested and fined, and that for a while there was a possibility of jail time:
- https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/tour-de-france-opi-omi-spectator-arrested-according-to-report
- https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/opi-omi-spectator-fined-euro1200-for-tour-de-france-crash/
- https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/tour-de-france-opi-omi-spectator-avoids-jail-sentence-after-causing-stage-one-crash
the police that’s around the route and especially on mountain stages are extremely passive. They just stand to the side and watch the show without doing anything at all.
They can’t police every fan on the side of the road. The person who caused the crash today may have only been in the path of the race for a few seconds, leaving no time for any sort of police action.
There’s no reason to think this person today intended any malice. Same with the woman with the sign a couple years ago. It was carelessness and lack of understanding of just how fast the peloton rides. Maybe it would help to make some examples out of some people by fining them, but I’d rather start with educating the spectators first. There should be signs along the course, in the towns or on the climbs where people park, etc.
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