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Video: Tour de France riding skillz - Marcus Burghardt gives his musette to a young fanMarcus Burghradt gives his musette to a young fan

Video: Tour de France riding skillz - Marcus Burghardt gives his musette to a young fan

Big hearted German seeks out a lucky young chap to get his goodies…at speed
by dave atkinson
Wed, Jul 09, 2014 13:23
8

When the Tour de France is rolling through a feed zone you'll often see the riders tossing their musettes into the crowd when they've taken what they need.

It's a bit of a grab-fest. You won't often see one of them pick out a young fan and make sure they get the goodies though. But that's exactly what Marcus Burghardt did on stage 2 of this year's Tour. Here we see him rolling off the front, picking out a supporter and handing off the bag. Considering the height of the youngster and the fact that Burghardt is well over six feet tall, it's a decent bit of technical riding too.

Other riders also have form for picking out fans for goodies, and one is the inimitable Jens Voigt. On Alpe d'Huez in 2011 he chucked a water bottle to a kid he'd picked out, only for said youngster to get tackled by a middle aged man. Not to be denied, Voigt stopped, rode back down the hill, told the chap to hand the bottle over and carried on. Like an absolute boss.

Tour de France 2014
Team BMC Racing
Marcus Burghardt
Dave Atkinson

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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8 comments

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gr3g0ree | 9 years ago
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Saw it live on TV and said straight away what a nice gesture, he wasn't the only one though, there were other riders who threw their musettes or bottles to crowd in a 'catch it' way, could clearly see on TV too.
Sister now wants me to go to next years Etape so she could come with me and watch the guys and catch 'goodies' 4

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crazy-legs | 9 years ago
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Robbie McEwen did something similar a few years ago. End of the stage, riders/spectators all milling around and some kid had snatched his water bottle out of the cage. Robbie grabbed the bottle back, gave the kid a right bollocking in French then gave the bottle to another child who'd been standing there quietly and got a bit trampled in the crush.

1

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J90 | 9 years ago
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You can tell from his social media he's sound. Nice gesture.

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Beaufort | 9 years ago
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Burghart did a good thing but the Jens Voigt story is truly heartwarming and the sign, if it was needed, of a true sportsman.

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Some Fella | 9 years ago
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Can we let Burghardt win the Tour please?

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Cresser | 9 years ago
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I had the same thing happen to me at the Tour 8 years or so ago. Sebastian Hinault basically placed his water bottle at the feet of my kids. Gave them "the best day ever" said my son. Flipping expensive water bottle though, you know how much it costs to fund your cycling habit, then multiply that by three to equip two racing kids. I could have retired by now...

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WolfieSmith | 9 years ago
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I waited 3 hours on Saturday for Jens to come by in the breakaway and he gave me nothing. 45 4

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nicholassmith | 9 years ago
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I saw that when I was watching it, what a classy guy. That kid will have had the best day.

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