Book tip Tour de France - You miserable murderers Excerpt 2 - The fans of the Tour de France

The crazy fans of the tour
What would the Tour be without its spectators? That's right, just a normal cycle race. It is estimated that between twelve and 15 million people line the 3,500 kilometre route every year, making the Tour one of the biggest sporting spectacles in the world. In the mountains in particular, you have to arrive days in advance if you want to pitch your motorhome or tent in an attractive spot directly on the route. One of the most sought-after spots when the tour leads to Alpe d'Huez is in a bend just before the entrance to the village, from where you can see a good three kilometres of road. Anyone who parks there, often a family from Swabia by the way, should be there a good five days before the race. Over the years, it has become increasingly fashionable for fans to dress as garishly, bizarrely or simply stupidly as possible and to run alongside the pros, shouting wildly. For many people, the prospect of a few moments live on television is pretty much the greatest thing they can imagine. You can make a fool of yourself for that. And so frogs or ducks or walking Epo injections run uphill. In between, people in bora wigs and green bib pants, accompanied by guys in swimming trunks and bobble hats. Of course, half or completely naked people are not to be missed. There are always groups of women in bikinis, often without tops. Men also go naked from time to time. You don't really need to have seen this, but it doesn't stop some of them. For example, the two men who raced alongside the Columbia Highroad team in the team time trial around Montpellier in 2009. Whether you really need to be on television worldwide - well, who needs it.

Incidentally, with the pace of today's stages, the riders hardly have an eye for the curiosities along the way. In most cases, a stage today is ridden according to the following motto: a few kilometres of easy rolling until the sharp start, then pedalling until the doctor comes. With the exception of the first two or three hours on the last stage to Paris, there is no restraint or easy rolling. Only in the finale is the pace really stepped up until the Champs-Élysées is in sight. The reason for the consistently high pace is that everything is now televised and the sponsor naturally wants to see performance. In addition, a stage win is so valuable that some riders always try to break away. And if there is only one rider in such a group who has a chance, however small, in the overall classification, you can't let him ride away for half an hour or more. Because that can take its toll, as was the case in 2006 when the Spaniard Óscar Pereiro was suddenly the winner of the Tour after Floyd Landis was disqualified. The man was at the front because he was in an escape group around Jens Voigt on a transition stage from the Pyrenees to the Alps, which ultimately crossed the finish line a good 30 minutes ahead of the peloton with all the favourites (winner: Voigt). If it hadn't been for this slow ride by the peloton, Andreas Klöden would have become the second German Tour winner after Jan Ullrich.

But, as I said, people ride differently today, and the fans at the side of the road have to be damn good on their feet if they want to run uphill alongside their idols. Over the past few decades, Dieter "Didi" Senft from Brandenburg has become the true personification of roaring madness. The self-proclaimed artist, inventor and bicycle designer has been running alongside the racers dressed as the devil, roaring and waving his trident since 1993. At first, everyone thought it was funny, even the professionals. "El Diabolo" became a media star, the cameras on French television always put him in the big picture when he raced alongside the cyclists with a bloodcurdling "Heja, Heja, Jaaaaaaaaa!!!", and the presenters were delighted. Didi made it into more than 50 TV programmes as a guest, became a comic figure and was known like a colourful dog. At some point, however, the act ran out of steam. Senft is still usually on the tour, but the cameras have been swivelling away for years. The increasing fading out allegedly began for economic reasons. To finance his travels, Didi Senft liked to find sponsors, and for a while he had a prominent German car supplier on his cap and trident, whose logo could be seen long and wide on television. The official tour sponsors didn't like that so much
who, through the tour organisation, exerted gentle pressure on television not to show the man all the time and, above all, not for so long. This certainly hurt the devil financially, but he continued to tour anyway. Today, more and more fans dress up in wacky costumes, although the riders don't have the time to admire him properly, at least not on the difficult mountain passages. The pros have enough to do with themselves, and sometimes the howlers simply overdo it, like in 2018 when a crazed fan brought down the Italian and co-favourite Vincenzo Nibali on the climb to Alpe d'Huez. Nibali still made it to the finish, but then had to abandon the race with a broken thoracic vertebra. Incidentally, the solution to this mountain craze would not be so difficult. If the big passes were all equipped with barriers, such as the last kilometres in Alpe d'Huez or on Mont Ventoux, the riders would be protected. But the world craves images that show the riders battling their way through the surging crowds of fans. And since the show is extremely important, there will also be at least a few completely free passages in the future.

In the past, the professional/spectator ratio was much more relaxed, as many a stage, by agreement between the captains of the big teams, tended to be ridden piano, at least at the beginning. There was only a tough race in the last two or three hours. Before that, the pros still had enough time to take a look at all the spectators lining the roadside. In 1979, a curious episode occurred: a few racers turned the well-known game of wet spraying on its head. It was very hot, the field was cranking up a hill, when suddenly a woman in a tiny bikini and high heels stood at the side of the road and waved. Belgian Ludo Peeters probably thought he could help in the heat and sprayed the woman with his water bottle - much to the delight of his fellow cyclists. It is not known whether the young woman enjoyed it.

This was an extract from "You miserable murderers". All information about the book:

The Tour de France - great emotions, tough battles and unintentional comedy
Itching powder in the jersey, nails on the race route and racing cyclists who prefer to take the train: Jürgen Löhle knows the wild stories that have taken place on the Tour de France. He recounts the most bizarre, exciting and tragic events in his book "You miserable murderers!":
-anecdotes, curiosities and fun facts about the Tour de France
-riders, fans and helpers - people who shaped the Tour
-Background stories about the stages and teams of the Tour de France
-Witty gift for cycling fans and cycling enthusiasts

You miserable murderers, Curious stories from the Tour de France, Jürgen Löhle, Delius Klasing, 19.90 euros

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