Posted on 07/25/2022 5:39:28 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Tour de France fans took matters into their own hands on Saturday as they removed a gang of eco-protesters threatening to disrupt the bicycle race by sitting in the middle of the road to block riders. MailOnline has more.
"Eight climate activists from French campaign group Dernière Rénovation (Last Renovation) sporting T-shirts emblazoned with the message “we have 978 days left” to tackle environmental decline tried to stop the race during the 20th stage between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadouron on Saturday.
"But their attempts to wreak havoc at the stage were thwarted by spectators, who stormed onto the road and dragged them out of the path of the oncoming bikes even before the police arrived on the scene to make arrests.
"Striking pictures have emerged of the enraged fans bowling into the road to pull, push and harry the protesters off the tarmac to prevent them from ruining the race.
"Started earlier this year, Dernière Rénovation (DR) is a French faction of the international climate activism conglomerate “A22”, which includes the likes of Just Stop Oil – a U.K.-based group which attempted to disrupt the British Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 3rd.
"DR employ similar tactics to those used by the likes of Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain, such as gluing themselves to the road to create congestion in large cities or putting themselves in harm’s way to disrupt major events."
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysceptic.org ...
Yes. All those farts and Excessive CO2 generated./s
They should mix up a batch of quick dry concrete, then insert the feet of several protesters into it.
When they complain, just point out their hypocrisy in trying to deny others mobility, when they cannot abide immobility themselves.
I think auto racing is probably worse.
There’s all kind of racing associations in the US.
And Europe has a ton:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:European_auto_racing_series
Also Australia is a pretty car crazy country.
Bikes emit no Co2. Try blocking the Gran Prix.
Or a semi truck rally.....they’d just be a greasy spot on the road. Just hose ‘em off into the gutter.
Yes, at least some eco purist say that bicycles are bad because the roads are bad. Plus the carbon fiber bicycle fra.mes are.not recyclable.
At least I have seen that argument.
Chicken Little: “The sky is falling!”
Boy: “Wolf!”
They need about 30 guys on motorcycles to run a mile or two ahead of the race. When they see protesters on side of the course, park in front of them and be prepared to keep them off the track.
Headline: TdF Fans Renovate Dernieres’ Derrierres
AMEN
SMALL CHASE CARS.
Search for stories on the amount of traffic surrounding the TDF each year. Many, many mayors have told organizers to NOT bring the TDF though their towns. I stand by my comment above that the TDF is probably the most polluting sport that exists. Three weeks of major traffic and trash.
Is biking [now] bad for the environment?
“Well, there are 22 team buses, 44 team cars in the convoy plus several cars of the organizers and innumerable motorcycles traveling over 2000 miles so to an ‘environmentalist’ I guess it is.”
See #33 above from me. Most folks think bike race is clean. I have read and I believe the TDF is the post polluting sporting event that exists. Three weeks of trucks, cars, busses, people and trash. Not the mention the disruption all over France.
On the other hand, it could be argued that it is the largest sporting event in the world so it’s no surprise that it’s the most polluting. I’ve long thought that Tesla should sponsor a world tour team. Would be EPIC virtue signaling.
That very well could be. The race is held over a span of three weeks. Every one of those 20-22 days, millions of Europeans travel by some means to their observation point on that day's race course (which averages 120 miles in length). That's not millions cumulatively over three weeks, that millions of spectators EVERY DAY of the race. One year there were an estimated 3 million spectators lining just the final nine miles of the race course up the 21 switchbacks on l'Alpe d'Huez.
The TdF is the largest sporting event in the world that doesn't charge admission to see it live. Instead, every cent is paid for by the sponsors. Even the the riders themselves are rolling billboards.
Which is why there's "the caravan." You never see it on TV but every stage of the TdF is preceded by a parade of vehicles created by the advertisers that look like refugees from a Mardi Gras parade.
About two hours before the race begins, roughly 160 large vehicles, mostly flatbed trucks or trucks pulling "floats" dressed up with artistic representations of the sponsor's products, set out ahead of the racers. The caravan drives the entire route (~120 miles per day) blaring loud pop music and throwing trinkets to the fans at roadside. Hats, keychains, ladies stockings, candies.
In 2015 they distributed 14 million trinkets. Fourteen million. Almost 700,000 a day. 5500 per mile of the racecourse.
The kids in the crowd go insane, diving into the ditches and gutters fighting over trinkets that no one managed to catch on the fly. My first visit to the race, as soon as the first vehicle in the caravan passed I realized the best strategy was to not make eye contact with the people on the caravan floats, and avoid getting anywhere near where the trinkets were being thrown, else you could find yourself underneath a scrum of teenagers.
Then I realized that people who throw out 700,000 trinkets in a day get to be pretty accurate. They throw them AT you and you either catch them in self-defense or you get beaned. Anyway, that's almost as many internal combustion vehicles as there are bicycles in the race, and they drive every mile that the races race over.
Plus each of the 20-or-so teams has a diesel bus ("motor coach"), at least two large panel trucks for bicycles and other equipment, and several support cars.
Plus there are a couple of dozen motorcycles that the race course officials and the press ride on. And there are "neutral support" cars, usually sponsored by Mavic, which carry equipment and spare parts for the aid of any team. And the press has multiple helicopters.
And the police support. The pros only ever race on a "closed course." Every day the police have to drive the complete race course and "shoo off" all the unauthorized motorists, then they have to station a policeman and police vehicle at EVERY INTERSECTION to insure that no "civilian" vehicles manage to get on the race course during the event. Hundreds of policemen and police vehicles, every day for three weeks.
And this goes on every day (except for the one or two "rest days") for three weeks over a race course that averages 120 mile/day, three week total of 2200-2500 miles.
That's a lotta lotta pollution. But manmade global warming is a hoax and the air is far cleaner than when I was a kid so i don't give a rip.
The zaniness of “the caravan:”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajogpAGrPjw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP8SqAvOo54
Thanks for the perfect description of the TDF. Amazing how many people would laugh and say, no way, it’s just a bicycle race! I had the privilege of knowing a rider in the TDF and he would tell me stories that were amazing at the complexity of the show(as he called it).
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