ETadej Pogacar, who was otherwise always in a good mood, was a little annoyed. “I wasted a cartridge. That’s a bit annoying,” said the Slovenian at the finish of Morzine. What annoyed Pogacar: In the fight for the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, he wanted to attack his rival Jonas Vingegaard one last time – and was rudely slowed down.
An escort motorcycle blocked the 24-year-old’s way. In the dense line of fans on the narrow road of the Col de la Joux Plane, the last climb on Saturday, the motorcycle pilot who was subsequently sanctioned was not able to make room quickly enough – Pogacar had to stop his start to avoid a collision.
“It is what it is,” said Pogacar afterwards. The two-time overall winner also knows that the fascination of the Tour de France consists largely of the unusual closeness between drivers and fans. At the weekend, however, the curse and blessing became clearly visible.
Past drunk fans
On the one hand there are breathtaking TV pictures and an incomparable atmosphere for the drivers too – the beaten Frenchman Benoit Cosnefroy even got off his bike on Saturday, had a drink handed to him and danced exuberantly across the asphalt with his fan club. On the other hand, the competition is influenced and dangerous situations arise again and again.
On Sunday, a careless spectator triggered a mass fall. The most important helper of the defending champion and overall leader Jonas Vingegaard fell. About 128 kilometers from the finish of stage 15, a fan stood too far on the road and stuck out his arm, which appeared to be holding a smartphone. The American Sepp Kuss, who was at the front of the field, touched his arm, fell and took around 20 drivers with him to the ground. In the mountains, Kiss is Vingegaard’s main helper.
“This is the drivers’ office. Don’t go to her office,” said Eurosport expert Jens Voigt, who accompanied the stage to Saint-Gervais on Mont Blanc on the motorcycle. “Don’t try to be part of the spectacle. The drivers are the spectacle, they are the show. Leave the road to the drivers,” appealed the former professional. John Degenkolb was also involved in the crash, which immediately forced no driver to retire.
There had also been trouble with fans in the days before. For example on Friday, when the mood in the paddock was down after the descent from the Grand Colombier. After the pros had officially finished the race after the mountaintop finish on the Jura giant, they then had to roll back down the same path to get to their team buses – in the general chaos between excited fans and cars.
Georg Zimmermann found this the “most uncomfortable part of the day”, Wout van Aert even experienced the rolling down as “actually life-threatening”. “You have to imagine that,” said Zimmermann – “it’s normal for us that we have to go down 18 kilometers through the chaos and past the pretty drunk fans.” Zimmermann emphasized that he didn’t want to blame the cycling enthusiasts at all : “But that’s uncomfortable”.
The problem of dangerous closeness to fans is by no means new: in 2021, former time trial world champion Tony Martin collided with the cardboard sign of a female fan. The consequences: a devastating mass fall, serious injuries and multiple tasks.
It is certainly not possible to completely prevent such situations with sometimes more than 200 kilometers per day. With so-called evacuation routes such as the departure on Friday, however, there is room for improvement. One option would have been to take the riders down an alternative route, since the Grand Colombier has four different routes to the summit.
And the unsightly influence on the fight for yellow on Saturday might have been prevented if a larger part of the track had been blocked off with bars.
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