Fools

flattythehurdler

redneck, trailer trash, stupid idiot, and "moran" just to name a few. Don't worry though, they are fairly harmless.

Dennis Noward[/quote]
Don't bring the Irish into this.

dennisn

flattythehurdler wrote:

redneck, trailer trash, stupid idiot, and "moran" just to name a few. Don't worry though, they are fairly harmless.

Dennis Noward

Don't bring the Irish into this.[/quote]

The Irish are already here - my wife.

Dennis Noward

finchy

dennisn wrote:

Just to keep you folks across the pond informed, what we have here is a bad haircut, bad mustache, scroungy looking, house trailer living, rusted out car driving, ill fitting dirty T-shirt wearing, 3rd. grade education, citizen of the good old USA. Known by many names - redneck, trailer trash, stupid idiot, and "moran" just to name a few. Don't worry though, they are fairly harmless.

Dennis Noward

Harmless? I thought that they were all wife beaters!

capilinconnemara

Well he is def not well educated.The word is MORON
Moran is a surname. As in Kevin Moran formerly of Manchester United and Ireland

dennisn

johnfinch wrote:

dennisn wrote:

Just to keep you folks across the pond informed, what we have here is a bad haircut, bad mustache, scroungy looking, house trailer living, rusted out car driving, ill fitting dirty T-shirt wearing, 3rd. grade education, citizen of the good old USA. Known by many names - redneck, trailer trash, stupid idiot, and "moran" just to name a few. Don't worry though, they are fairly harmless.

Dennis Noward

Harmless? I thought that they were all wife beaters!

No, wife beaters wear an entirely different t-shirt. One without sleeves.

Dennis Noward

don key

dennisn wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

There was one idiot at the top of Cole Grade last night and he was flat-out sprinting with a baby in his arms. The kid's head was bouncing all over the place. My jaw literally dropped to the floor at the stupidity of some people.

There can only be one thing to say

Just to keep you folks across the pond informed, what we have here is a bad haircut, bad mustache, scroungy looking, house trailer living, rusted out car driving, ill fitting dirty T-shirt wearing, 3rd. grade education, citizen of the good old USA. Known by many names - redneck, trailer trash, stupid idiot, and "moran" just to name a few. Don't worry though, they are fairly harmless.

Dennis Noward

Unlike yourself, as in your case the last word would begin with a c

pottssteve

Oooh, my thread's become a hotbed of racial tension....

Anyhoo, I can see it now:

"Cleetus, where you goin' with that thar baby?"
"Ahm a goin'g to watch some high quality Eeyouropeen cycle racin', Ma"

"Well why don't ya take yur wife an yur sister with ya?"

"Naw, she don't like that kinda thing....."

markwalker

I thought the Sumo guys were great! very funny and not in the way.

I had a look at the baby throwers again last night, I think they were dolls??

Anyway, On reflection i enjoyed the ToC and back on subject. It was good to see Lance is back and riding ped free again. Will bikes with a lance colour scheme be available soon in the UK or will it be an import job? Also the Astana kit looks really smart too, im going to wear some in my next triathlon

le_patron

I love the different classes of spectators that have been identified, like hanging chads etc

'tunnelers' - trad euro style, close but parting at last minute
'runners' - either trad euro (behind) or new cali style (wildly in front, next to)
'sumo runners' - localised variation on the cali runner
'baby throwers' - wasn't expecting these :shock:

add as sub groups are identified

pottssteve

Bored wives and girlfriends?

Guys on mobiles telling their friends that they are on telly.

Old school riders - at least 70 years old with tight touring jackets and long tights even in summer.

P*ssed Dutch guys in orange

hammerite

You also have the "Province/alternative nation flag waver".

Usually with something like this.....

Martin Van Nostrand

so when Americans do this, they are fools, idiots.
When Europeans do this, it's 'a culture we can't understand'.

andy_wrx

Well here's an interesting series





The rider I belive is that ever so nice Mr Armstrong and that nasty spectator seems to have annoyed him by waving some giant syringes at him...

<edit : I give up, they don't seem to work right : try this http://www.tdwsport.com/imagedesk/repor ... D=20092437 , 5th/6th rows down>

markwalker

andy_wrx wrote:

Well here's an interesting series





The rider I belive is that ever so nice Mr Armstrong and that nasty spectator seems to have annoyed him by waving some giant syringes at him...

<edit : I give up, they don't seem to work right : try this http://www.tdwsport.com/imagedesk/repor ... D=20092437 , 5th/6th rows down>

caption for those pictures

You're late......

dennisn

Martin Van Nostrand wrote:

so when Americans do this, they are fools, idiots.
When Europeans do this, it's 'a culture we can't understand'.

Good one.
Hows the weather treating you up there? Horrible here near Detroit. Just can't seem to get out at all. Freezing rain, snow, ice covered roads. Sucks and I hate trainers but am giving it hell.

Dennis Noward

pottssteve

I wouldn't do it anywhere. However, Europeans have been doing it for a lot longer so are better at it. As always, the Americans just miss the point......

tarquin_foxglove

le patron wrote:

I love the different classes of spectators that have been identified

'tunnelers' - trad euro style, close but parting at last minute

Saw a clip on a Top Gear repeat last night that reminded me of this thread, about 0.30 seconds inextreme tunnelers

le_patron

ok then, so after the scenes from P-R which were pretty intense, where do we stand on the crazy fans issue ?

Alex Moos was knocked off his bike when a spectator put flag-pole through his wheel.....the moto incident, Pozzato claiming he was spat on by Belgian fans, "howling, flag-waving spectators overrunning the barriers at several points" on the Arenberg, a woman stepping out into the road at the last minute almost into a rider, the general 'tunnel' of fans that were on many sectors...the list goes on.

Is it more acceptable because it's in the heartland ? Personally I think the nutty fans give the races a special energy that makes up for the odd incident (moto thing excepted).

FJS

No, it's not acceptable. Flanders is arguably the heartland of cycling, with most the passion, and I think the only region in the world where cycling can arguably be said to be the nr 1 sport (joint with football, but still), but Flemish fans tend to go too far in their nationalist passion sometimes. Abuse of riders of any other nationality at cyclo-cross are well known, and Pozzato riding through a wave of boooos, and apparently being thrown beer in his face is a disgrace. I think it's expecially appaling that Flemish tv commentators and top riders like Boonen don't really put much effort into discouraging this kind of behaviour. A shame.

pottssteve

I don't think it's acceptable anywhere when it affects the rider adversely.

I'm never going to be in the position where I have a tunnel of "fans" trying to spit at me but if I were I would be tempted to get off and punch one of them before proceeding. It wouldn't cost a lot in terms of time and I could always get a bit of a tow from the motorbike like Boonen did in the last 10km!

zormik

FJS wrote:

No, it's not acceptable. Flanders is arguably the heartland of cycling, with most the passion, and I think the only region in the world where cycling can arguably be said to be the nr 1 sport (joint with football, but still), but Flemish fans tend to go too far in their nationalist passion sometimes. Abuse of riders of any other nationality at cyclo-cross are well known, and Pozzato riding through a wave of boooos, and apparently being thrown beer in his face is a disgrace. I think it's expecially appaling that Flemish tv commentators and top riders like Boonen don't really put much effort into discouraging this kind of behaviour. A shame.

They did and it's even on the biggest website (site of the tv-station that transmits the cycling) in flandern:

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza.be/wielrennen/090414_dronken_fans_in_de_hel

The main problem is in Roubaix is that they are arrive in the morning and start to party already. Too much beer makes you do silly stuff. In general flemish fans don't boo other racers at all, and even help them if they fall. But well, beer and supporters never goes well together

Pretty weird you don't see this in the tour of flanders, but that's probably due to the fact people live close to the track and don't spent all day drinking beer waiting for the racers to pass by.

Pozzato probably got some hate due to the way he rode the tour of flanders, always riding in Boonen's wheel and showing no intitiave, no will to work at all. That's still not an excuse though and i hate to see those things happen aswell, takes away from the beautiful sport cycling is.

cougie

Dont think you can avoid it really without barriering off the entire course.

That stupid bint that almost took Pozzato off must have got a bollocking from the other fans surely ?

It was a different vibe all together though - people watching the races rather than running on the road trying to get on tv ?

As for fans spitting - well thats just assault and they should be charged with such.

FJS

zormik wrote:

They did and it's even on the biggest website (site of the tv-station that transmits the cycling) in flandern:

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza.be/wielrennen/090414_dronken_fans_in_de_hel

Yes, I know, they report on it and Michel Wuyts sometimes shows some signs of dissapproval, but all very much like it's just an unfortunate effect of the popularity of cycling we'll have to live with. There is no real firm effort to stamp it out, and Flemish riders like Boonen or Nys could do a lot more to seriously take a stand and condemn those 'fans' (well, fans, I've seen a sporza interview of a drunken cyclo-cross spectator that never had heard of Sven Nys..). The comment about it not happening in De Ronde is interesting. It does hapen a lot at cyclo-cross races, also in Flanders (Groenendaal, Boom).
And it is not an exception of one or two drunken fans that spoil it for the rest; just listen to the almost constinuous wave of boooos for Pozzato on Carrefour de l'Arbre.

le_patron

mmm......piece on CN now about hooligans on the Carrefour de l'Arbre....sounds like it's getting much worse.

sing_for_absolution

le patron wrote:

mmm......piece on CN now about hooligans on the Carrefour de l'Arbre....sounds like it's getting much worse.

Sounds more like an over-reaction to me. There have always been idiots amongst the Flemish fans. A dutch friend of mine was at the Cauberg when the Tour de France visited the Netherlands. He had the unfortunate pleasure of standing next to a group of drunk flemish fans, who cheered when they'd heard Erik Dekker had crashed (that very nasty face-first one which brought his retirement forward) and were generally very drunk tommeke-loving fools.

It'd probably be better if they confiscated alcohol from them, but France isn't Britain, so won't see that happening.

Anonymous

pottssteve wrote:

I thought I heard Harmon say that the prat with the antlers was now sponsored by a competing TV station. That guy didn't even watch the race, but at least he didn't get in the way.
On a couple of occasions I thought riders were impeded by the crowd. I only saw one rozzer, a stereotypical lardy Dukes of Hazzard style chap at the top of one of the climbs - clearly not enough.

How can you be sure he wasn't in fancy dress too? Heh heh

Kléber

It's not new. Merckx took a punch in the ribs. Spectators have thrown pepper in the faces of riders. Others have stepped out for photos. Remember the "Simoni Hooligans"?

afx237vi

le patron wrote:

ok then, so after the scenes from P-R which were pretty intense, where do we stand on the crazy fans issue ?

Alex Moos was knocked off his bike when a spectator put flag-pole through his wheel.....the moto incident, Pozzato claiming he was spat on by Belgian fans, "howling, flag-waving spectators overrunning the barriers at several points" on the Arenberg, a woman stepping out into the road at the last minute almost into a rider, the general 'tunnel' of fans that were on many sectors...the list goes on.

Is it more acceptable because it's in the heartland ? Personally I think the nutty fans give the races a special energy that makes up for the odd incident (moto thing excepted).

Surely that was an accident caused by the moto driver losing control and crashing? A bit unfair to lump that incident in with other "hooligan" behaviour. It was hardly the fault of the spectators.

le_patron

afx237vi wrote:

le patron wrote:

ok then, so after the scenes from P-R which were pretty intense, where do we stand on the crazy fans issue ?

Alex Moos was knocked off his bike when a spectator put flag-pole through his wheel.....the moto incident, Pozzato claiming he was spat on by Belgian fans, "howling, flag-waving spectators overrunning the barriers at several points" on the Arenberg, a woman stepping out into the road at the last minute almost into a rider, the general 'tunnel' of fans that were on many sectors...the list goes on.

Is it more acceptable because it's in the heartland ? Personally I think the nutty fans give the races a special energy that makes up for the odd incident (moto thing excepted).

Surely that was an accident caused by the moto driver losing control and crashing? A bit unfair to lump that incident in with other "hooligan" behaviour. It was hardly the fault of the spectators.

Agree. I don't know what caused that. Still wouldn't like to be a moto driver in those conditions, must be difficult.

teagar

I saw a little light hearted piece on the Flemish "Man bijt Hond", where the more "experienced" fans from the Tom Boonen fanclub were demonstrating how fans should behave and stand.

Basically you lean forward rather like a fencer, with most of your weight on your front leg, so you can give them a good cheer. Then when they're about to come past, you then can push up on that front leg and move your body back, leaving them plenty of room. They did a little demonstration, with the riders from their local club. Hilarious!

They said the problems on Sunday were due to "people who wanted to experience the atmosphere" rather than true cycling fans. Then agian, they would say that.