Tour de France

Been watching the Tour every morning, as a bike rider as well, I am in awe of the stamina and energy these rides have after riding 5 hours through the Alps, then sprint for the finish up an 8% grade! But what is more amazing are the multitude of motorcycles with passengers hold holding heavy TV cameras, press bikes, Tour Officials, and French Police bikes, that weave in an out of the riders and team cars, especially on the hairy downhill descents at 60 mph! And they are big bikes with bags, transmitters, antennas etc. Took a ride yesterday through the Redwood Reserve on steep twisty 2 lane roads and can't imagine doing it with bunches of bicycles and spectators crowding the road as well.

 

Part of that is maybe because everyone is going in the same direction?

 

Not exactly, they weave from side to side and the crash a lot (sudden change of speed and direction). Cars and motorcycles constantly changing speed, passing to get ahead or along side. Next time your going down hill on a twisty road, imagine a couple hundred assholes along side the road constantly jumping out and waving flags in your face. The French were not nearly as bad as the English, English kept trying to take "selfies" by putting their backs to the Peleton and stepping out. Saw one rider bat a phone out of a spectators hand.

 

News here has picked up on all those assholes trying to get selfies with riders in the back ground. They should have guards on bikes riding near the group swatting these pricks off the road with asp batons and tazers.

Fuckers!

 

A good reason that at big time race meets the great unwashed are not allowed in the pits unless they have big tits.. Another reason the pit are essentially closed is "souvenier" hunters with light fingers.

I agree with what you say.. Our assholes do the same thing in stadium events including throwing stuff at the contestants. Then we got the "football" crazies.. in UK..

What I meant in the inquiry was I figured the "traffic" was confined to one direction ie no traffic from North to South ect. ect.

Nothing new either.. I nailed a dude trying to nick a handful of jets from my truck one night at a flatrack event when they opened the gate to the track. Did I hit the SOB with my hotshoe? I can't recall..

 

Great coverage, Stage 13.

 

If allowed the same shit would go down in a Moto GP race, the Isle of Man or Bonneville. Keep in mind that even though clusterfucks like this go on, they provide coverage for the armchair quarterbacks among us.

 

I understand some people like bicycles. I aint a big fan of most cyclists. On my daily commute to work, I pass through several well know areas for cyclists (Jockey Hollow, NJ). Mostly single lane each way, very picturesque, speed limit usually 35-40, etc. All these dudes wearing their grape smuggler pants. But aside from that, its the attitude. Every one of these guys/girls has this damn sense of entitlement. You know, the "share the road" thing. Except the rules don't apply to them. Weave between traffic (no lane splitting in Jersey, phuckers!. clog up the road doing 10mph. Don't ride single file. Ride through red lights and stop signs. The list goes on.

Just the other day I was driving home in my car. Speed limit was 40. Come to a section where they're doing some construction around a blind curve where the limit drops to a suggested 15mph. They got cones out, warning signs, and the dudes that get paid to hold signs telling you when to proceed. So as I enter the turn (first car) at the instruction of the sign guy (don't fuck with the sign guy!!), there's barely enough room on either side of me between the workers/equipment and the guardrail. And wouldn't you know it - along comes some dickweed on his bike in his spandex pants, ignoring the fact that all vehicles from his direction were supposed to stop and wait, and basically forces me and the others to stop short or run him over. If it wasn't 90* out and I had my window open, I think I would have closelined him. (And its a brand new car, so I didn't want any scratches on it! lol).

They should stick to riding in the parks. And not so coincidentally, I've learned that for some reason every time I pass a cyclist, my windshield is horribly dirty and needs to be cleaned right then and there.

Rant over. Good luck to Lance Armstrong or whoever is representing the USA.

 

You are right, a lot of cyclists forget they have to obey same rules of the road. In my last job in WA, I was fortunate that there were some great trails, abandoned railroad right aways converted into County Parks. I hated ride on the road. Because they are bicycles you might that these races are small time events, they are not. There are 22 teams competing in the Tour de France, one of many Pro races during the year. Most teams have a budget of around $20-$25 million dollars. Big bucks, big business. My point in posting these pictures was not for the bicycles, but for the incredible skill of the multitude of motorcyclists that support this race and ride with the pros. The HD TV coverage was spectacular. Almost all the cameras were on motorcycles or in helicopters. They even had GoPro cameras on some of the pros bikes and showed up close and personal coverage. We all have our hobbies, mine are motorcycles and bicycles. Don't worry, I don't wear the tight pants, it would be a pretty sight! I ride a Trek 2.3, similar to the Pros bikes, but a lot less $$. Yes there are lot of jerks that ride and drive, doesn't mean that all 2 wheelers are bad.

 

Do you really think they forget? Not much racing of the nature of the Tour de France here. The cross country riders on 101 in WA and OR are good riders. The assholes are mostly on mountain bikes and are usually the ones' going splat. Some weekend warriors in my hood in Oregon ride like they were paying for something. Not all but enough to give the good riders a bad jacket.

The culprits are easy to spot on some of the backroads with bicycle lanes. They ride outside the lanes and shooting the shit on cell or talking with some other person way outside the bicycle lane.

Their argument? SOS "we have cars too and we buy gas too and we yada-yada.."

 

Pro Races: Tour of Utah, US Pro Challenge - Colorado, AMGEN Tour of California and a host of similar amateur events.

 

Ten bucks says that if there is media coverage and spectators at these USA events, the great unwashed are doing the same shit as the English and the French and probably some Albanians too. Albanians are great selfie fans, second only to The Kardashians.

The dude that is gonna hit the big time is the one who promotes and sets up a race up and then down Pikes Peak. A real hustler could have a Gatoraid and Steroid concession at both ends and hire a few of those Japanese motorcycle cops to supply media coverage.

 

In South FL we have all sorts of bicycle stuff going on. There is a critial mass ride in Miami and Ft Lauderdale on the last Friday of every month to raise awareness of bicycles. I have been on a few of them, last count was around 3000 people. Basically two-wheeled ANARCHY, which is not a bad thing mind you, ft lauderdales finest (use that term loosly) were busy arresting people that violated some rules. It was a scene fer sure, I take my 1967 folding Raleigh 20 bicycle oot on these excurssions and dust other riders withoot so much of a blink.

I took my road bike oot on one of the Ft Laudy rides recently and get :bs: from someone that I was a inconsiderate. Just cause I had a wife beater on and my hair was flying in the breeze. Some people. :flip: image is everything

I used to have an aunt (she was wealthy and was not playing with a full-deck) and she used to watch golf for the scenery. I think I watch the "Tour" just to see the motorcycles covering it and the view of the mountains. :loco:

There always gona be people that denegrate stuff and image for others, last time I looked at my drivers licence, it did not say "ambassador."

 

I watch it because I ride both, being a 'little' overweight, I did a 65 mile (bicycle) ride one day and it damn near killed me!

 

The solution is then a stationary bike and a bigass TV..

 

Don't knock it, thats what I do. :loco:

 

If funds are short, there is probably a website somewhere that teaches a Zen version. No fear and no hardware.

 

Way way back in the early nineties, probably 93, we (Canada) hosted the triathlon world championships and it was in my home town of Huntsville Ontario. Well they needed bikes to carry the various media folks around the cycling course so our club threw in and I ended up hauling a German photographer around for the day. He sat backwards on my 1990 VFR so he could shoot the riders as we passed them or from the side. I have no idea how the pictures turned out but it was an amazing fall day and the colors of the leaves couldn't have been better. I have to say that the speed of these elite riders was pretty impressive.

This was long before cell phones and selfies so we didn't have too much trouble from the crowds and because we were nowhere near a city the crowds in general weren't too bad.

 

Cool gig! The triathlons live on. Got a relative who just qualified for an offroad triathlon on Maui. Might take a dirtbike to film those..