"It's bloody ridiculous for that to happen, but it's 21 days and millions of people. Everyone knows how much of a circus the Tour de France is. You can't control it.''
SHOOT: Personally I think a lot of the riders have nerves of steel, especially when they go up the mountains and are at close quarters with the crowd. Often the crowd throw beer at them, or get in the way. A kid waving a yellow musette once brought down Lance [well, he went on to win that stage].
It's hard to imagine that the Tour can carry on without additional incidents. This latest one sets a worrying precedent. But you never know, swine flu this time next year might be an unexpected solution to thinning out those crowds.
COLMAR, France -- At least two Tour de France riders were hit by pellets from a BB gun or similar weapon as they labored behind the main peloton near the finish of Friday's Stage 13. Neither was seriously hurt, but the incident again illustrated the perils of conducting one of the world's largest sporting events on the open road.
Julian Dean of New Zealand, a sprinter who rides for the Colorado-based Garmin-Slipstream team, and Oscar Freire, a Spanish sprinter for the Dutch Rabobank team, were hit on the descent of a mountain in the Vosges late in the challenging 124.2-mile stage, which unfolded in cold, heavy rain and fog. Rabobank team doctors later removed what they believed to be a lead pellet from Freire's thigh. A pellet glanced off Dean's right index finger, causing some bruising and bleeding.
It's not unusual for spectators to interfere with riders in some way, but there have been remarkably few violent incidents in the Tour's 103-year history. |
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