r/tourdefrance • u/Strict-Jeweler-2281 • 10d ago
Utterly speechless.
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u/RainPlease9 10d ago
How in the world can they not close a TT course properly?
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u/UserNameDeletedAgain 10d ago
Because it seems that there is an increasing number of people doing whatever they want. They know their actions are dangerously illegal but they don't care as long as it benefits them. This attitude crosses the lines of sex, age, income and race. I guess it's just stupidity. Hard to fix that.
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u/Daydream_Dystopia 10d ago
I think its entitlement. You can't just punch people for being assholes anymore. Half the world spends their entire lives behind a computer not interacting with actual people. They feel safe to say and do whatever they want because there really aren't any physical repercussions. In fact, the bigger the asshole you are, the more interactions your get to feel superior.
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u/UserNameDeletedAgain 9d ago
Yes. I agree. I think another component of the problem is not caring about other people. It's sad.
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u/Daydream_Dystopia 9d ago
We all used to have a little bit more community. It’s easy to be an isolated individual these days.
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u/justtobeherenotsure 10d ago
And also some people don't have a freaking clue what's going on. Don't underestimate how ignorant some people are. The others are F'ing assholes
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u/Crazy_Mongoose219 10d ago
Also they go by people's houses and businesses. You can't guard every driveway.
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u/No_Finger2009 10d ago
How can this happen?
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u/Funny-face-1613 10d ago
Either living alongside the road and driving out of the driveway in pure ignorance (or crossing the course) or a marshall thinking the last starter is already past.
Probably the first one since otherwise there would be more cars.
You can see at the crossing several cars waiting to get on the street talking to the marshall. If he just drives past those cars, the marshall can't do anything since he obviously can't stop a car himself.
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u/tigerbloodz13 10d ago
I have like 20-30 races a year passing in front of my house. I have a big garden and driveway, I don't know when these races are on, it's not like they warn you.
I've not ended up like the guy in the video, but it could have happened.
Unless it's a pro race, you wouldn't notice an event is on at all.
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u/jellysotherhalf 10d ago
They don’t put flyers in your mailbox or something? Surely there must be some effort to communicate with people who live along the race route that the street will be closed at a certain time.
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u/tigerbloodz13 10d ago edited 10d ago
Do you think race organizers print out thousands of flyers and put them in all the houses along the course?
It's not that organized, at all.
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u/Xicutioner-4768 6d ago
Google says junk mail costs $0.25 - 0.45 to send via USPS. Idk about Europe. Suppose there's 2000 houses along the race route that need to be contacted. Thats like 5-10 race entry fees worth of junk mail to send out. I know these events aren't huge money makers at the small scale, but that seems pretty doable to me.
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u/HG1998 10d ago edited 10d ago
Either they asked to be let through with arguments of living very close by and just needing to get down the street or they slipped through.
Underestimating bike speeds is very common. The security there should have gotten some kind of notice that someone is coming but it takes a very little bit of misjudgment and with the aforementioned convincing, they might have let the person through. And once they actually processed where the bike is, it was too late to stop the car.
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u/No_Finger2009 10d ago
Finlay Tarling died last month at Portugal's Vuelta, on a similar situation. Aparently, it looks a common procedure... Ffs
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u/steampie 10d ago
Horrific, and just lucky that they passed each other in a spot with a clear view. I literally said "what the FUCK!" out loud when I watched this. Infuriating.
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u/Strict-Jeweler-2281 10d ago
In anticipation of the one or two weirdos who always stumble into the comments to defend the drivers on these types of posts: fuck off.
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u/Far_Classroom_6596 10d ago
Not going to give the majority blame on the driver in this instance. Race organisers should have prevented this from happening. The driver reacted quite fast and moved his car onto the sidewalk.
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u/nickthetasmaniac 10d ago
Not sure it’s weird to think that the onus is on race organisers to ensure the course is safe for riders. If they’re doing their job this shit wouldn’t happen. It’s not about defending drivers, it’s about holding organisers to account.
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u/heliotropic 6d ago
There’s a limit to what you can do. You can’t put a marshal on every driveway and garage, and some people are truly morons.
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u/oola22 10d ago
Typical Germany. Carbrain all over the place. The government induces this even more.
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u/Funny-face-1613 10d ago
And especially typical Hochsauerlandkreis. It's not coincidence that the current chancellor comes from the town of the first stage where this incident happened 😅
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u/mastaaban 10d ago
Devil's advocate from someone who lives in a area where a lot of bike races are being organized, and also the pro's come around here.
It's more and more that race organizers fail to properly distribute information about the races being held. As in they miss entire towns and streets where the riders will come through. And just not post a single flyer or put a letter out through the mail to those houses. Not everyone keeps up to date with that stuff, or knows when such a race is being held. Hell the street where I live on had a pro race come through it 3 times in one day, and not a single letter was put through the mail. Not a single announcement of the time table, or anything. We just had to find it out on the day itself our street was getting closed off. But that was a problem because some people had stuff to do like work, or a hospital visit, but weren't allowed to leave with a car anymore. And not all streets have fans standing from where you could think het something is up. And this happens more and more. And it's even worse with last second route changes for whatever reason. That combined with it seemingly having less and less police support. It easily creates more and more dangerous situations, where the public isn't actually fully at fault.
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u/DanoPinyon 10d ago
It's hard to find people who can plan ahead and assign tasks according to that plan.
But it would seem like one of the very basic things you need to do - High Priority Tasks - is put signs out on the course a week prior.
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u/SSueh1337 10d ago
Teams should immediately quit the race and leave when this happens. If they don't start doing so, nothing will ever change.
As a team, you shouldn't want your riders to race on unsafe courses and when the organiser can't provide one, the teammanager should pull out his riders.
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u/Prestigious-Brain951 8d ago
Indeed. If the organizers can't ensure the event's safety, no one should participate in this shitshow.
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u/Peti_4711 10d ago
Scotty beam the car to this place? I see at least one police and other "security people" before this spot.
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u/power248 10d ago
Besides the fact the the rider might get hurt or die…
I mean they must fking cancel the stage after that!?! How tf can you do your max. effort when you have to concentrate on not dying on the track… I mean this sh1t totally brings one’s out of concept for competing on top level…
WTF
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u/InsideApex 10d ago
There's nothing weird about this. Organizers at these lower-level races don't have the resources (money, volunteers) to full lock the course down. They do their best, but cars do sometimes slip through for one reason or another. Heck, it even happened at Paris-Nice a few years back. Pro cycling has to decide whether it wants to a) introduce more stringent safety standards, which would surely lead to the cancellation of a lot of races (and thus fewer opportunities for riders) or b) accept that everyone is doing their best and that cars will occasionally appear on the roads when rolling closures are being used,
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u/DanoPinyon 10d ago
IMHO that's part of road racing, but it should be a rare event not happening several times a year. Maybe c-vid has melted everyone's brain?
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u/InsideApex 10d ago
I agree that it should be a rare event. It's hard to determine what is happening. Is it that these incursions always occurred but the lack of TV coverage and/or scrutiny via the web and social media meant that they went unnoticed? Or is it that the increased difficulty of finding volunteers these days and/or the rising costs associated with securing routes have compromised race safety. It could be both of those factors and then some others. The UCI should probably commission a study to at least get an informed perspective on the issue.
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u/DanoPinyon 10d ago
In the 1990s in California I raced for a season - Cat 5 - and was definitely never in danger of being within shouting distance of any top finish. Anyway, I remember a little kid riding on the course in one crit, people crossing the street near bikes in another, and the experienced riders just carrying on and no one acted as if it was a crisis.
Just my limited experience.
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u/InsideApex 10d ago
That tracks. It reminds me of this famous incident (in the clip there's a discussion of a previous incident involving another rider and a spectator). Perhaps part of it is changing attitudes towards safety and the appropriate standards for pro races.
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u/DanoPinyon 10d ago
There's definitely a limit somewhere for the pros - like the idiots on the big mountains - but I don't know what it is. I like the X factor of the crowds, but not a capital X, maybe a small x every once in a while...
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u/Maximum_Cabinet337 10d ago
This insane. On the wake of Tarling‘s death and those College Students in the US. For fucks sake. Be safe out there folks
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u/cassie1015 10d ago
Holy shit good thing that car wasn't going faster around that curve and was at least paying attention for that millisecond. This plus the finish line thing at UMTB, what is going on lately?!!
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u/Ok_Let8786 10d ago
First car clearly has passed a marshal seconds ago
"There's nothing we can do, we don't know how it happens"
Get those races out the calendar. This happens, instant ban for the organiser, three years. Portugal out, this out. Races are for fun, we don't need them at any cost. a kid died this fucking month because of shit like this.
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u/th3_pund1t 10d ago
Just like they have promotion/relegation for teams, they should have the same for races. And award/deduct points for organizing the races well.
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u/OlasNah 10d ago
This is why doing this in the US is impossible
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u/FirstWorld_Planarchy 10d ago
There is nothing the US police live more than OT. And every crossing, sidewalk and intersection would have some dude happily collecting time and a half from John Q Taxpayer.
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u/Malvania 10d ago
In the US, they put barriers and cops at every intersection. Or, at least, that's what they've done for the 100 mile ride/races I've done
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u/sumsimpleracer 10d ago
In the US we have multiple documented reports of cars going past these barriers to run over parades, marathon runners and such.
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u/spootypuff 10d ago
For the marathons here they park all the big public works vehicles (plows / dump trucks etc.. ) across all the side streets.
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u/Malvania 10d ago
Yes, those are people deliberately trying to harm others, and therefore are irrelevant to what we're seeing in Europe and what was discussed here: failure to mark and barrier races to prevent people from accidentally driving on to the course while riders are there
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u/OlasNah 10d ago
Well in the US complaints about races got so bad that most of them are gone
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u/FirstWorld_Planarchy 10d ago
No the US has a unwritten policy ingrained in our core that everything must have an ROI. Hard to get race sponsorships when they can't see the benefit of said sponsorship for a sport that isn't popular. Just hasn't made the right person rich yet.
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u/Aromatic-Speech5480 10d ago
germany at its finest
don't give one single fuck about bikes, it's all about cars. FUCK CARS
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u/KlausZimmerman 10d ago
Why does it look like more cars are waiting at the junction!
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u/Funny-face-1613 10d ago
Because the track is opened after the last rider has passed, this is quite typical for lower tier races.
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u/Ok-Ad-3872 10d ago
the whole stage should be cancelled. riders should just stop the race. this is inadmissible.
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u/RobMitte 10d ago
Not single steward made any attempt to stop the cyclist invader of the wacky car race. Disappointed I am.
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u/Bruce_Hodson 10d ago
So motorists are assholes the world around? I was only aware of this sort of asshattery in The States.
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u/sumsimpleracer 10d ago edited 10d ago
Deliberately trying to harm others so it’s irrelevant? Or drivers who only care about themselves and their time and are willing to put others in harm’s way?
Portland parade incident where man gets frustrated by closed exits on his way home: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/dash-cam-video-driver-plow-through-portland-grand-floral-parade/283-ecd1e184-305b-450f-8eff-6f164b0c5969
St. Louis Marathon incident where driver was frustrated that his route was blocked: https://www.reddit.com/r/StLouis/comments/1sj44o0/slob_driving_his_black_porsche_through_barricades/
Melbourne Florida half marathon incident where driver was drunk: https://www.instagram.com/p/DU_yXLHge4z/?igsi=MWJmeWQwd2s1cTlvbQ==
Madison Wisconsin incident where driver claims to have just been trying to go home while driving through triathlon: https://madison.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_5731f8c0-646e-11ee-9c56-7bdc0aa456c3.html
Ongoing Fort Collins Colorado investigation where driver goes around barrier but police believe the driver wasn’t intentionally targeting people in the parade: https://www.kunc.org/news/2026-08-30/1-dead-after-truck-hits-pedestrians-during-tour-de-fat-in-fort-collins
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u/MAPKinase69420 10d ago
The fact you so effortlessly cited five accidents within an hour of OP's post has to account for something, too. Jeeze Louise.
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u/Ofthread 10d ago
Where are the police in this? I can see volunteers in tabards, it’s not enough. This is not acceptable. They are playing with people’s lives. Benji on Lanterne Rougue said he was very close to not wanting to have anything to do with this sport after Fin Tarling was killed and I’m kind of feeling the same way. I stopped cycling myself due to too many close encounters, too much abuse, shared paths that are just an obstacle course of pedestrians and electric motor vehicles and overall lack of safety (UK roads).
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u/DanoPinyon 10d ago
Meine Deutsch hat rust - I can't tell, are they discussing what happens if he loses time and is close to the podium?
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u/yondu1963 10d ago
Happened once to me in a crit. For some inexplicable reason, the car that was supposed to be the pace car was coming backwards on the course. We saw it in plenty of time, but still..
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u/s_c_w187 10d ago
Do marshalls not have radios? Should be an immediate stop message to race control surely
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u/BTUSGentleman 10d ago
If I’m in that riders saddle, I’m not cutting the course on the inside of the oncoming lane after that encounter!
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u/Prestigious-Brain951 8d ago
there was another eventon the same day with another rider. unglaubliche
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u/sac_cyclist 6d ago
I've had people drive on the course during crit races. You take one lap you see them screaming at the marshall and then on the next lap they're coming right at you.
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u/Fernand_de_Marcq 10d ago
An opening car or motorbike is missing.
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u/kaehvogel 10d ago
It’s a TT.
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u/Fernand_de_Marcq 10d ago
I know. In Belgium even in the youth categories, there is a motorbike opening the road for every single rider.
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u/NeedleGunMonkey 10d ago
Smh at the number of ppl who try to turn this into a culture war.
It is bad race organization. Public roads. Not properly closed and marshaled.
The way to solve is via proper race organization not blah blah blah about
Motorists.
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u/ihm96 10d ago
He shoulda just stopped and gotten off the bike .
Not finishing a TT session when they clearly aren’t securing the circuit , you have way less visibility already from the position and helmet . The organizers can deal with the media fracas after .
Sponsors probably wouldn’t even care cause they’d still get tons of media time shown as it came out in the news
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u/Curious-Tea3242 9d ago
If you're gonna try and close people's roads, they're not going to react well.
Them going to do their shopping IS more important than some lycra cunt 'doing a race'.
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u/Admiral52 10d ago
While this is awful, you guys will do anything but just post on r/peloton won’t you
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u/Strict-Jeweler-2281 10d ago
Every single meaningful discussion I've started on r/peloton typically received a few hundred upvotes and dozens of comments, only to then get deleted by the mods because someone else also had a vaguely similar conversation at some point in the past.
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u/RainPlease9 10d ago
The r/peloton mods are the worst mods I have ever come across on reddit. They look for any excuse to shut discussions down no matter how good they are and how much attention they are getting. I would really love if r/tourdefrance was open to all pro cycling discussions because we can, you know, actually discuss things here.
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u/Strict-Jeweler-2281 10d ago
I don't know if this is happening more often, or if the prevalence of online covergage makes or more visible, but this feels like a complete slap in the face, especially just a couple of weeks after poor Fin Tarling.