Tour de France stars thrilled by Yorkshire Grand Depart - but not by fans taking selfies

Call those crowds? This is a crowd. Buttertubs Saturday.

Didn't make it to Yorkshire, but I was in Cambridge today. Think those naysayers up north were wrong...

In Silsden the crowd was utterly awsome, and the organisation very good. I didn't anyone doing stupid things in Silsden, and the riders were really flying into the town.

Regarding selfies, could be a lot of people in the crowd were new to cycle racing and had not idea just how fast the riders go, and how much it's going to hurt if they get hit.. even where they are going up hill.

How the hell did they go up that climb out of Oxenhope at that speed? Bloody incredible, if I'd not seen it I wouldn't have believed it.

Seeing the best in the world make mincemeat out if hill I've pushed my bike up a child was brilliant.

TDF in Yorkshire... loved every bit of it. Lets do it again next year

Was perhaps three hi vis deputies on Buttertubs and one copper but the crowd policed themselves pretty well. Mostly proper cycle folk which may have explained the lack of selfie action. @spincyclemag has perhaps the best photo from stage 1.

Completely forgotten about the World Cup being on! Everyone in the office is talking about the TdF; even Wimbledon and the Grand Prix haven't had a mention.

Anyone else miss read that strava message to Russ Downing and think the Ron Jeremy had taken the KOM?

I know Mario Chipollini once said that if he wasn't a pro cyclist he'd be a porn star, but the thought that it might have happened the other way round took me aback for a moment ... and then I re-read message.

We were spectating just outside Holmbridge (around where the breakaway got caught). The road is narrow with no pavement and dry stone walls both sides. All morning fluoro-jacketed event security were urging spectators to stand OFF the road (at the other side of the wall) - cue much trampling down of brambles. Then after a while a guy who looked like their supervisor told them not to bother giving that instruction as they didn't want "a riot" (his phrase) on their hands. And I thought we were being very well behaved!

With crowds that big you're always going to get a few idiots, but as the quotes in the article say, many people haven't witnessed anything like this before and aren't aware of the size and speed of the peloton.

I think it's good that people who aren't generally into the sport are taking an interest - some will probably will stick with it - but the lead cars, and particularly the numerous police, could have done a lot more to explain - in a friendly manner - that the riders need the whole road and to stay on the verge. Maybe they could stop for a second at crowded pinch points? All we got was a garbled recorded warning on repeat as one car sped by.

Had a look at the Daily Mail (on-line) article which was saying how well it had all gone. Also looked at the comments which were mostly positive but there was the usual crop of 'misery guts' bleating about cyclists (tax, road closures, blah blah). I fear for this country if I ever go near the DM!

Interestingly I've read elsewhere that the Tour Makers were forbidden from trying to do crowd control and were only there for crowd assistance purposes. I'll see if I can find the link, but I think it was BTL on The Guardian.

And the fella who got knocked off his feet at the intermediate sprint was facing forward with his camera ...

There were reportedly 2.5m out on the route. You are always going to get a few idiots amongst that many people, it is an unavoidable fact of life. It's certainly not unique to Britain - Paris-Roubaix 2013 and the Zoncolan this year, are two that immediately spring to mind.

That said, some of the stewarding wasn't much better. One of them near us almost got taken out twice by Gendarmerie motorcycles, as well as one of the caravan floats, because he was too busy talking to his mate.

Until I read about this, it's just something that would have never entered my mind to do! iPads?!! About the last thing I would haul up a hill to watch a bike race. A good vantage point and an SLR with a decent zoom lens should get you some great phots (multishot mode) and still leave you time to watch and cheer as the riders pass. Mind you, I'm just over 6ft which helps!

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all that was needed was a uniformed person to ask to move out of the way

I was surprised that the Tour Makers weren't being used in this way too. I had the impression that most of the crowd had no appreciation of how fast the race was going to come through. Even just warning people that there was a safety issue would have been an excellent use of manpower.

To be fair to the girl who took that selfie, it looks like she was positioned well back from the road. I think I read it was just after the start rather than deep into the race.

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Anyone else spot the crowd control copper strolling along in the middle of the road with his back to the riders, just as the bulk of the peleton got to the top of Holme Moss?

I did! Funny as well because it looked like he'd been telling people to get off the road, and was completely oblivious to the fact he was about to be squished.

Two team\race cars, side by side ahead of the Peleton, horns beeping, that should get them back

Bar a few who are a bit over enthusiastic well done Yorkshire and the UK. Amazing to see so many behind it, makes a change from the endless negative cycling nonsense in the press. the crowds along the whole route on TV were amazing, I'm so disappointed I couldn't make it up now

Sadly an event like this will attract a number of people who have no interest in the sport just want to be there/be a know head etc. It's bad enough that there are actual fans whose behaviour is questionable but add in ringers and things aren't good.

As for the 1st comment - I'd agree about natural selection the problem is they risk the certainty of taking riders with them.

Did anyone see the guy in the pink polo shirt get knocked off his feet when the peleton was ramping up the pace?

The selfie craze won't go away when the stupid cow on BBC Breakfast is asking people to send in theirs from the race.

I wouldn't have noticed Contador in that photo if he wasn't covered in fluorescent yellow.

But anyway, until today I didn't know that Britons were the only people in the world who took selfies.

That's enough sarcasm for today, methinks.

Anyone else spot the crowd control copper strolling along in the middle of the road with his back to the riders, just as the bulk of the peleton got to the top of Holme Moss?

An even bigger pain in the backside is those gabshites who use iPads to take photos. While at 2 different stages during the Giro, standing in my carefully chosen spots, what had been great viewing positions were screwed seconds before the peloton arrived with ignorant bolloxes suddenly jumping in front of me and holding A4 sized screens up blocking my view of the riders. In one of them I was at the 75m to go at Belfast city hall as the sprinters were hammering it on and one iPad wielding sheep leant so far over the barriers I don't know how they missed him.

I really don't understand the selfie craze. Why wait for ages to see a bike race and then in the few seconds in which it passes have your back to it. Are people worried that nobody will believe they were there unless they appear in the photos.

Risking injury to themselves an others for the sake of a photo.
Tejay Van Garderen summed it up as a dangerous mix of vanity and stupidity.

Gotta' say I say I love the Contador photo bomb (although I hate that term).

I've often thought that they should send a snowplough up ahead of the riders. Maybe with blades charged to 50kV

Can't understand why after hours of waiting you would want to watch the riders through a screen/viewfinder instead of your "Mark I" eyeballs.

P.S. I was pleased to see one of the G-S riders (Slaghter?) slapping down a smartphone and seeing it break into pieces on the pavement.