Bill, Bill, Bill. Where do I begin..... warning yiu in advance, there will be typos....

Let's see, well, first, if you focus your attention on the overhead camera shots, the people in the roadway are almost always much farther ahead of the riders than it appears from the motorcycle shot taken from behind the riders. The riders complain about the loudness of the noise, not the closeness of the people.

Second, if the people want to be there, they will be-- wherever there are no barriers of cops..... they will just adjust. You really would have to patrol the whole route, 24/7-- a lot of them are camping and getting there a day or so ahead of the race.

Point 2.5, the towns of the finishes and the route LOVE the tourist bucks-- and are not likely to dial down the crowd's opportunities by contributing 24/7 gendarmes out of their small town budgets.

Third, many of the roadsiders ARE cyclists-- club riders who have ridden up there themselves or who have arrived via tour but who do road-ride at home and know what the sitruation is. Notice, BTW, they wave arms and implements up where the riders' bodies are, not at the wheels or gears. Riders can withstand bumps from there-- see them whack at each other in the sprint finishes.

Fourth, there is a little concept called freedom of speech. Those folks rightly feel that this is a people's sporting event that has wanted their participation just as it is, for a very long time. It's only our recent culture that wants to make everything unnaturally "safe" and, above all, "fair." The history of the Tour is that it is for the people, as much as for the commercial interests. I believe if you censored that in any way, there would be a backlash far surpassing the little threads we get here about censorship. (And the riders would be on the people's side. So would the TV people and sponsors, who sell all that dramma.)

Fifth, try thinking of the whole Tour phenomenon as a giant organism-- a self-currecting ecology of riders, commercial interests, people, and alocohol. (Vive la France!) A self-correcting mechanism, as much as a place like Mudcat is.

NO ONE forces the riders to ride through those folks..... they get as much of a buzz from the crowd as we do wathcing it. We're worrying-- but for them it is a positive buzz, a heightened rush of adrenaline.

Seventh, iunjuries to riders in Le Tour have tended to have occurred from descents and other derring-do-- not crowd interference.

Sixth-- I'm sick, why are you "making me type so much"? ;~)

Besides, if you're really worried about the riders' safety, you know there is always recourse to prayer. (mandatory shot)

Anyhow, how about that Hincapie?!?!?!?

~Susan