peterjvh wrote:Perhaps I'm a square head, but can't the spectators be a little more considerate of the racers? Waving banners and flags in rider's faces, standing on the road at curves making the riders go around them, creating crowd bottle necks all over the place.......Today that dog almost caused a catastrophe!
Must be frustrating for the riders.
Yer problem is that a fair few of the spectators have been there all day, some sipping on an occasional beverage in the baking sun, with the publicity cavalcade going past trying to whip them up into a frenzy, listening to the race on the radio and getting even more excited...some will have driven down from the low countries and this is their annual holiday, etc etc ...so it's little wonder that those within the crowd who are more likely to have an excitable personality (the eejits) can get carried away.
But on the other hand, compare them to some football crowds and they seem quite restrained, especially considering how close they are to the riders. And, indeed, over a normal stage of the TdF the crowd must number in the tens of thousands, so the percentage of loons is probably smaller than it seems.
