Posted on 07/21/2004 1:04:05 PM PDT by BluegrassScholar
L'ALPE D'HUEZ, France (Reuters) - Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc has admitted he had seen fans spit at five-times champion Lance Armstrong during the 15.5-km time trial to L'Alpe d'Huez.
Leblanc also said the swarming crowds on the twisting climb on Wednesday had frightened him as riders, including Armstrong, were forced to weave through excited fans who jumped out on to the road.
"I was scared too and I felt relieved when we reached the section with barriers," Leblanc told Reuters after stage winner Armstrong described the stage as a "bad idea" and hit out at some German fans.
"Until this morning, everybody thought this time trial was a good idea and now we realised it was not so.
"There were lots of aggressive fans surrounding the riders and I even saw two idiots spit at Lance Armstrong."
"Unfortunately I doubt you can put barriers on the 14 kilometres of the climb," he added.
Armstrong, who stormed to victory nearly a minute ahead of his closest challenger Jan Ullrich and now looks set for a record sixth Tour win, urged organisers to think seriously about holding another time trial at the ski resort.
"I don't know if that's such a good thing for the Tour de France. I don't think it's safe. I think organisers should watch out," said the American.
The spitters could be from anywhere in Europe. I saw this today and was amazed how close the crowds were.
Damn those Europeans are sophisticated.
The French should know better then to spit on a liberal American opposed to the Iraq War.
It was most likely German's doing the spitting. If your country was run by socialists and has 12% unemployment and your guy was getting his @ss kicked by an American, you'd be pissed, too.
Okay...EUROPE is really starting to p*** me off!
Let's not forget the constant (all hours of the day & night) drug testing. That's why he left France & brought a place in Spain.
I am still suspecting that a fan is going to take Lance out by some means such as a stick in the spokes.
Getting a place is Spain didn't get him out of drug testing.
Some of the graffiti on the road was hostile as well, e.g. "Lance Sucks," "EPO Lance." But one bit was great. It said "Cut their balls off Lance." Indeed.
The French fan are just lovely. They did the same thing to one of the Williams sisters as well. They hate winners, and American winners most of all.
Two class acts!
Of course not, but it did pretty much stop the 3am drug testing, though.
...but I thought the French love Americans, they just hate our gov't? :>
We're supposed to emulate them, right?
The spitters could be from anywhere in Europe. I saw this today and was amazed how close the crowds were.
Those spitters could've been any radical fringe group goons using Mr.Lance Americana as their scape goat regardless of his political affiliation. Besides most people in general get tired of the same person/team winning year after year. The masses over the course of mankind always go for and relate better towards the under dog. Lance hasn't been an underdog in a long time.
And Americans were supposed to carry the label of "ugly".
were they spitting or trying to whisle through their toofless grins?
OLN said Armstrong beat Ullrich by 61 seconds. Must be those 'metric minutes.'
When Armstrong wins, he should take the opportunity to tell the world he was spat upon by the Frogs and that he will not be returning, ever.
My wife just spent 3 weeks in France with the In-Laws (two strikes, I didn't go), and she found 99.9% of Frenchmen rude. There was one nice lady with a Chai necklace....
1 001 ARMSTRONG Lance USA USP in 39' 41"
2 011 ULLRICH Jan GER TMO at 01' 01"
There was an article on velonews.com about this and Lance had some critical words for German fans. Of course they could have been French and he refrained from mentioning them because the rest of the race is in France. Either way the race up the mountain will be no more. Race directors watched the mess and concluded that it was a mistake and dangerous. They had three of 15.5km with barricades. They claim that with 21 switchbacks it is impossible to barricade the entire course.
I suspect liberals are rooting against Armstrong even though he appears to be a lib.... the same will be true for the Olympics.... Every Gold will be a Gold for Bush... Every deep-loss will be a win for Kerry.
I love liberal logic....so predictable.
He has said he intends to compete next year.
Hmmm the Lance hecklers are all wearing Orange clothing, any significance to that?
Orange fans would be Spanish. Armstrong lives in the Spanish mountains near France. It is for training I understand.
Lance oughta unclip his bike pump and whack the dogsh*t out of those SOB's in orange.
He may be a lefty, but he's our lefty. WE don't even have the right to spit on our own lefties!
Hmm... Maybe all those guys are euro Freepers freeping Lance? :P
"Lance oughta unclip his bike pump and whack the dogsh*t out of those SOB's in orange.
He may be a lefty, but he's our lefty. WE don't even have the right to spit on our own lefties!"
All I can think of is DuhYam people, it's ONLY A BICYCLE RACE! To the Lance hecklers in orange, Get a life and some therapy. Life is too short.
One of the announcers yesterday or today on oln was saying that the rumor is that this intense time trial up d'Huez today was put in the Tour just to give Lance a hard time, because of going for the 6th win. (Of course it gave everyone else an even harder time.)
On the Tour thread for today, someone said that on the German sites (I guess he meant cycling sites) people were hoping Lance would be killed (!) by furious fans, before the race is over.
My dear late father, the most enlightened man the U.S. Merchant Marine ever produced, once said, during a "World at War" segment during the early 1970's:
>>>The American fliers were spit on by those French people." Once. That was all he said. Never mentioned again.
This was a man who was brave enough to be sunk, drowned, and catch another ship. USS Wasson. Torpedoed Coast of Wales 1/31/44. The above remark is the only utterance any of us ever heard from my father about his Merchant Marine war service 1941-1946.
A man of such courage and grace as my father, would consider this beneath him, however, I think that it is certainly worth noting that a man without any prejudice whatsoever, throughout his entire exemplary life, choose the French people at large, to settle his score.
%$#&^*@#%^$& the filthy French!
Go Lance Go.....WIN this one for the USA!
"On the Tour thread for today, someone said that on the German sites (I guess he meant cycling sites) people were hoping Lance would be killed (!) by furious fans, before the race is over."
People who think like that are seriously disturbed. So much anger towards an athlete who has no control, no association or influence over President Bush.
Dude dressed in ORANGE and wearing icky EUROTRASH Sandles...LOL..way kewl...yeah, I wanna peeaUropeen
G
How french!
Heras should have stuck with USPS. I suspect he was on his way out anyway. Azevedo did a great job as a replacement.
Is the Race replayed on any ESPN channel? I have Dish Network but do not get the Outdoor Life Channel.
Is there any internet site that broadcasts?
I don't really think it even has anything to do with Bush. They're just mad as heck that Ullrich hasn't been able to win one in all these years, since Lance took over!
Ullrich has been 2nd every year since Lance began coming in 1st.
Not sure it's at all political.
But yes, seriously disturbed, no matter what their (lack of) thinking is.
No wonder we Americans have such a cultural inferiority complex when compared with the sophisticates of "La Belle France"
Sorry - OLN only. On the internet, you can listen live to the tour at letour.fr, or follow along on various sites with text updates like Velonews, the letour.fr site, or the BBC.
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