A spectator at the Tour de France decided to take action when he saw a man running alongside Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quick Step) on yesterday’s stage.

The man was running alongside the French rider on the Grand Colombier when he was stopped in his tracks by another spectator who grabbed his hand.

The organisers of the race have appealed to fans to not run alongside the cyclists and to act safely when standing on the roadside, but these incidents keep occurring.

The most notable incident was on the stage to Mont Ventoux when spectators caused a race motorbike to stop with race leader Chris Froome, Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema running into the back of the bike. There were also a number of other incidents on Ventoux.

7 COMMENTS

  1. Maybe six ft fences along the side of the route or the people need to use more common sence mite be a good Idear ☺

  2. Organisers of the TdF really do need to grasp that rider safety is paramount and get a handle on crowd control and motorbikes. It happens every year tho’ the recent death and the incident on Mt Ventoux last week must be among the worst.

    • Try securing the 3519 kilometres of TdF 2016? Multiplied by maybe a 1:5 ratio of security to roadside fans, you’re looking at a lot, way beyond any practical measure. How about adults be responsible and accountable for their actions, and for the actions of their dependants.

  3. It seems to be hit or miss. In 2011 there were Gendarme everywhere on Alpe d’Huez. One guy was running along side near us and they took him down and zip tied him. The day before on Galibier, they seemed to care less.

  4. Good job by the spectator! Maybe the spectators are the answer – there are millions of sensible ones and only a handful of idiots so if the majority jumped on the idiots like in this video it would quickly stamp out this irresponsible practise of running alongside the riders.

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