Sports

‘Sabotage’: Roughly Thirty Tour de France Competitors Suffer Flat Tires After Tacks Thrown Onto Course

Tacks on the Road Cause Roughly 30 Cyclists to Have Flat Tires During Tour de France

Bradley Wiggins (C) of Great Britain riding for Sky Procycling defends the race leader's yellow jersey with the help of teammates Mark Cavendish (L) of Great Britain and Bernhard Eisel (R) of Austria. (Photo: Getty Images)

(The Blaze/AP) — Tacks on the road have caused flat tires for about 30 riders during the 14th stage of the Tour de France, according to reports.  Race officials are asking police to investigate.

Race director Jean-Francois Pecheux commended Sky Team for encouraging the pack to not speed ahead or take advantage of the disturbance.  Among those affected was defending champion Cadel Evans.

“Sky immediately stopped the pack so that everyone could finish in the best conditions,” Pescheux explained. “Sky were very sporting; they slowed things down and everything returned to order.”

Tacks on the Road Cause Roughly 30 Cyclists to Have Flat Tires During Tour de France

Tour de France 2011 winner, Australia's Cadel Evans, looks at a team member fixing a flat tire due to an individual who allegedly threw tacks on the ground. (Photo: Getty Images)

Pecheux also said on French TV that the search for the culprit would be difficult because thousands of fans were on the roadside at the time.

The Associated Press explains:

Though race organizers and local officials roll out street sweepers ahead of the peloton to clear the roads of debris, the tack incident underscores the difficulty of securing the Tour route — this year 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles) long — where tens of thousands of fans line the course every day.

From time to time, stray dogs or photograph-snapping fans get hit by speeding riders on the route. On Friday, Wiggins was hit on the arm and received minor burns by a flare being waved by a spectator.

Tacks on the Road Cause Roughly 30 Cyclists to Have Flat Tires During Tour de France

Tour de France 2011 winner, Australia's Cadel Evans, starts riding after fixing his flat tire. (Photo: Getty Images)

Stage winner Luis Leon Sanchez and several other breakaway riders were many minutes ahead of the pack. They appeared to be spared what some are describing as “sabotage” during the 119-mile stage between Limoux and Foix.

BMC team manager Jim Ochowicz said Evans got three flats because of the tacks, and French TV pictures showed shiny, metal tacks imbedded in a tire of a motorcycle in a convoy that accompanies riders.

“It’s a criminal act. I think you‘re taking people’s lives in your hands … and creating a very dangerous situation,” he declared.

Tacks on the Road Cause Roughly 30 Cyclists to Have Flat Tires During Tour de France

Fans crowd the course near the summit of the climb of the Mur de Peguere during stage fourteen of the 2012 Tour de France. (Photo: Getty Images)

Cadel Evans seemingly took the disturbance more in stride, commenting: “That’s the way things go in life, karma hopefully comes around.”

Of the tacks, he remarked: “Couldn’t see them on the road … this has happened to me before — two times in Spain…That‘s why I don’t race in Spain very often.”

“Sorry for the good Spanish people and my Spanish friends and people in Spain who support me, but there’s a few people that just take things too far,” he said with what appeared to be good humor.

Comments (42)

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  • LMW
    Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:57pm

    I do not like bike or bike riders as they think they own the road but this is very bad as someone could get hurt or killed.

    Report Post »  
  • Aussie_Girl
    Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:23pm

    Why can’t I stop laughing when I read this article…hilllllarious

    Report Post »  
  • scrudge
    Posted on July 16, 2012 at 10:15am

    Ah Yes….. never cared much for the PEDAL PUMPER crowd.. little kids on sidewalks fine… adults on streets no… 200 lbs….. verses 3000 lbs….. SQUISH

    Report Post »  
    • GMP
      Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:28pm

      Ah… sense… you don’t make any……..

      Report Post » GMP  
  • DREDGE
    Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:28am

    Why not use the solid material tire the Chinese use on their bikes.
    Last forever and never have to inflate.

    Report Post »  
  • vtxphantom
    Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:49am

    Probably some of obama’s people making things equal. Don’t want the people on bkes to move faster than the people that are walking

    Report Post »  
  • That_One_Guy
    Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:22am

    HistoryGuy
    You are freakin sick. Many people enjoy watching it because it is one of the only decent sports still played. Its only sick people like you that watch sports so you can watch and laugh as others are hurt. Whats wrong with you people? Unlike in nascar, these guys dont have any real protection beside a helmet. Most serious crashes end up killing or putting a person in a coma. And you want this to happen to people? What is wrong with you?

    Report Post »  
  • BigdaddyK
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:38pm

    I can’t believe it to so long for someone to think of this before now!

    Report Post » BigdaddyK  
    • PaxInVeritate
      Posted on July 16, 2012 at 4:37am

      It was done before, just before W.W. II, and they almost canceled future races because of it.

      Report Post » PaxInVeritate  
  • infidelsaplenty
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 10:15pm

    ‘No big thing really. It’s just a new French bicycle road tacks.

    Report Post »  
  • Living In NYC
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:34pm

    Send over some of Barry’s drones….Time to give them a break from EPA and Big Sis eyes in the sky trying to catch people recharging their air conditioners and farm animals with stomach gas and catch some real criminals!

    Report Post » Living In NYC  
  • MODEL82A1
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:44pm

    Does Alberto Contador have an alibi for last night?

    Report Post » MODEL82A1  
  • catholicextremist
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:41pm

    Wish I’d thouht of it first.

    Report Post »  
    • MODEL82A1
      Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:48pm

      Yeah, it was awfully witty, clever and ingenious (especially considering that the same this was done back in the ‘20’s). Maybe someday true inspiration will strike you.

      Report Post » MODEL82A1  
  • hayesstephen
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:41pm

    Wow!!! What did people like you do before the internet. How crazy are you people, some of you I would not want to meet any time day or night unless I was sitting in an M1-a Abrams tank!!!! What is so sad none of you would dare to speak face to face as you do on the net.
    Anyway millions of people enjoy bike races, I do not, but I have no right to suggest others stop doing something I dislike. The idiot that threw those tacks on the road way is the same kind of person who get on the net and makes sad, oh so sad statements.

    Report Post »  
    • historyguy48
      Posted on July 15, 2012 at 8:21pm

      Comrade they made it more interesting, kind of like a Nascar race!
      Do you really think 200,000 people sit there just to watch cars make a lot of noise and zip around a track? Heck no! They are all waiting for the pile ups!
      Or how about when a 300 pound tackle just about tears the head of a quarterback! (By the way, that really is fun, I did that for almost twenty years!) Does the crowd say “Horrors his head is rolling across the field?” No they cheer the tackle for giving them what they want!
      Or did the Roman crowd cheer the prisoners being eaten by the lions? Get serious, that was a mild intermission!
      Of course you may be more like the Roman nobles that held a perfumed handkerchief over their noses while their eyes never left the scene of carnage and gore on the coliseums floor!

      Report Post » historyguy48  
  • MODEL82A1
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:39pm

    If this happened in the US, the Feds would ban tacks, bicycles and hilly roads.

    Report Post » MODEL82A1  
    • MODEL82A1
      Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:53pm

      And, of course, create and fully fund a new Federal Agency to investigate the root causes of Bicycle Hooliganism and to ensure that there was no violent (or non-violent) backlash against the Hooligans.

      Report Post » MODEL82A1  
  • roadhog
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:32pm

    The Frogs are petty people

    Report Post »  
  • RJJinGadsden
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:30pm

    I saw a part of one leg of the Tour de France in ‘87. It’s a mobile circus with a crowd so packed that you can hardly move. It would be difficult to even see somebody making an underhanded toss of tacks. Fortunately, every rider has a chase vehicle with a rack of fresh wheels with tires on the roof. Most had a spare bike or two as well. Long before the bikers arrive there is a parade of all sorts of people in various wild attire in the lead mostly on scooters. Shades of the “scooter gang” in that Fine Young Cannibals video. As the riders approach there are a few video reporters mounted on motorcycles or the rear of small station wagons. Since this leg came through Germany a combination of Polizei and Gendarme cruisers and motorcycles were interspersed through cyclist with many in the very rear of the pack. From where I was standing they came and went in a matter of seconds, but the whole spectacle lasted for more than an hour.

    Report Post » RJJinGadsden  
  • stotlaat
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:12pm

    It is not “Tacks”. It’s “Pinalty”

    Report Post »  
  • MAMMY_NUNN
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:09pm

    Union Tack-tics.

    Report Post »  
  • kapnkd
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:06pm

    Bicycle Race – FRENCH ???? ….WHO CARES at this point???

    We have too many other SERIOUS problems to resolve in our own country, let alone the world!!

    NOW!! …IF the whole team ran over Obozocommie and/or the Mooose on purpose – THEN we are TOTALLY in to it!!

    Report Post » kapnkd  
  • mash4077
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 6:57pm

    sacre’ bleu messuer hollande must investigate zis travesty.

    Report Post » mash4077  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:35pm

      No, call Inspector Clouseau. Just not the Steve Martin version.

      Report Post » RJJinGadsden  
  • HorseCrazy
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 6:36pm

    personal bias but I hate bicycles quite possibly the least manly “sport” of all time

    Report Post »  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:20pm

      Perfect for the French.

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • chips1
      Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:34pm

      It’s manly if they put playing cards in the spokes.

      Report Post »  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on July 15, 2012 at 7:54pm

      Makes for a great work out. Have had a number of bikes in my adult life, and still have some of them around. In early ‘87 I built a Cannondale frame with almost a complete Dura Ace groupo. Since it has been through a number of changes with Mavic rim blanks built on Dura Ace hubs with triple laced flat bladed spokes. Still have a 1990 Raliegh Peak with a near complete Deore XT groupo. The shop allowed me to take it home in the box and still carried on their insurance for one year. In the past I had loaned them some tools and given a hand at times. My Peak went together the way I wanted it with a number of changes from stock. At almost 60 I just wish I could still ride back then. At one installation a group of us used to make a half century almost every Sunday evening, weather permitting. A bike frame makes quite a lightening rod.

      Report Post » RJJinGadsden  
    • PaxInVeritate
      Posted on July 16, 2012 at 5:51am

      “personal bias but I hate bicycles quite possibly the least manly “sport” of all time”

      HORSECRAZY… that statement shows how little you understand. Few who play in what you consider to be a ‘manly “sport”’ could even complete one leg of the journey, particularly with an injury. Consider reading what Johnny Hoogerland did in last years Tour. After being hit by a media car while riding his bike at 30 mph, ran off the road and into barbwire, he continued to race, finishing and keeping the King of the Mountain jersey. After the days ceremonies were over, he went to the hospital and received 33 stitches.
      He then continued to the finish in Paris a week and a half later.

      http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hoogerland-happy-to-be-alive-after-crash-in-stage-9

      This year, Andre Greipel finished the Tour’s sixth stage with a dislocated shoulder after a crash (and has since won stage 13), and Frank Schleck suffered similarly in the Giro d’Italia. Time to broaden your mind bub.

      Report Post » PaxInVeritate  
    • chemnerd26
      Posted on July 16, 2012 at 7:54am

      You don’t have to like cycling but this was in no way funny. We have 8 very talented American riders in this race and they deserve our support.

      I personally love cycling and what was done on yesterdays stage was not only a disgrace but very dangerous (one rider did end up with bone fractures and is out of the race now because of this). Athletes knowingly take physical risks to compete in their sport, but no athlete of any sport should be the victim of some by-standers callousness.

      Report Post » chemnerd26  
    • budzy1911
      Posted on July 16, 2012 at 9:50am

      Horse,

      Really? So you are saying that crashing at 25 mph and then get up and finishing the ride is less manly then playing golf? Golf is for suburban males that forget they have a pair.

      If they crash in these races they can’t get in a car and then start the race again in the morning – if they get in the car they are out of the race for good. Unlike a baseball player that gets a mosquito bite and misses 3 games- you don’t get days off because of injuries in the Grand Tours. Try riding 120 miles in 5 hours with 9000 feet of climbing and tell me that is easy – like to see a NASCAR driver do that.

      Report Post » budzy1911  
  • Stoic one
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 6:35pm

    SOooo tacky that a person would have done this.

    Report Post » Stoic one  
  • RLTW
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 6:33pm

    Parley vue tack messier? I like the French, as long as they’re not Parisian.

    Report Post »  
  • HawkEyeTx
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 6:32pm

    #
    Hey……
    France is a complete “Blow-Out” anyway you ride-out the economy there.

    Report Post » HawkEyeTx  
  • RightPolitically
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 6:20pm

    Some out of work tire manufacturing employee just havin’ some fun. Hey, it’s France!

    Report Post » RightPolitically  
    • RightPolitically
      Posted on July 15, 2012 at 6:31pm

      With the whole world crumbling the French are all watching a bike race. Makes perfect sense to me.

      Report Post » RightPolitically  
  • sooner12
    Posted on July 15, 2012 at 6:17pm

    Must have been a Socialist who threw the tacks onto the road……..probably of French descent.

    Report Post »  
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