The recent Netflix documentary series on the Tour de France could be behind the rowdier crowds and frequently chaotic scenes at this year’s race, the Tour’s race director Thierry Gouvenou has acknowledged.
‘Tour de France: Unchained’, the eight-part series focusing on the 2022 edition of the Tour, first aired on the streaming giant in June, and – just like Netflix’s Drive to Survive series attracted a new audience to Formula One – is believed to be behind the influx of new, younger fans at the roadside over the past three weeks.
However, it has been increasingly noted by pundits and fans that some of these new Netflix-inspired supporters may be unfamiliar with the etiquette traditionally associated with bike race spectating, and may have provided the catalyst for some of the more chaotic and unsavoury incidents at this year’s Tour.
(Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
On Wednesday’s stage 17, as the riders neared the summit of the Col de la Loze, Bahrain Victorious’ Pello Bilbao was caught on camera striking out at a spectator who was running alongside the riders, blocking his path in the process, with the Basque rider earning himself an official warning from the race commissaires for his retaliation.
Just moments later, Bilbao and his fellow breakaway riders were forced to squeeze their way through a traffic jam caused by a stalled motorbike – carrying former Tour yellow jersey wearer Tommy Voeckler – and a swarming crowd on a steep bend. Race leader Jonas Vingegaard, however, wasn’t so lucky and was forced to stop behind the race director’s car as the chaos unfolded in front of him.
According to the Guardian’s Jeremy Whittle, one team manager pointed to the surprising number of small children on the race route and said that he was “very angry” at the lack of crowd control on Wednesday’s narrow, final climb.
The chaotic scenes on the Col de la Loze came just days after an attack from Tadej Pogačar at the top of the Col de Joux Plane was abruptly stopped by two race motorbikes blocking the road, after their riders struggled to negotiate both the encroaching crowds and the speed of the sprinting Slovenian.
A day later, a selfie-taking spectator struck Sepp Kuss with his arm, causing a massive pile-up in the peloton and injuring several riders, with the American’s Jumbo-Visma team since threatening to press charges against the phone-wielding fan.
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And earlier in the Tour, Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jordi Meeus was hit by a spectator’s phone during a sprint finish, while Lilian Calmejane was bizarrely brought down by a washing line-based fan tribute and TotalEnergies’ Steff Cras was forced to abandon the race due to what he claimed was a crash caused by fans spilling onto the road.
The Tour’s race director Thierry Gouvenou has acknowledged the apparent “Netflix effect” in attracting a seemingly rowdier crowd to the roadside this July, though he also noted that the exciting racing and a new breed of phone-obsessed sports fan could be behind the chaotic scenes we’ve witnessed over the past three weeks.
“This year the Tour has been exciting and there are many, many more spectators than in other years,” Gouvenou told the Guardian.
“And it’s a slightly different crowd, one that’s a bit more festive and less respectful, that doesn’t know the etiquette of a good supporter. So it’s true that in some places, we’ve found ourselves in a bit of difficulty.
“I don’t know if it’s the Netflix effect. I know the viewer wants to be with his phone and he wants to put himself in the picture, in the Tour de France. That’s the way it is.”
Portuguese sports newspaper Record also reported Gouvenou to have said: “We have been faced with a new audience, which we didn’t expect. I don’t know whether it’s the Netflix effect or the intensity of the Pogačar-Vingegaard duel, but we’re a little lacking in resources.
“Before we had complicated spots like Alpe d’Huez or Ventoux. But now it’s everywhere.”
The race director also promised, after the recent influence of race motorbikes, to review the number of vehicles used on the Tour’s narrowest and steepest climbs.
“The gradient on the section of the Loze where there have been problems is more than 20 percent,” he said. “Barriers in 20 percent sections don’t work.
“We’re going to have to review the number of vehicles in these difficult sections. Maybe we have too many media around the riders in these passages where we know there are going to be people and steep gradients, but we’re not going to ban the public from coming to the Tour de France.”
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4 thoughts on ““Netflix effect” could be behind rowdier Tour de France crowds, says race director”
I dont think its the “Netflix
I dont think its the “Netflix effect”, after all the series dropped and its barely being talked about anymore as a pop culture thing so who is it influencing exactly? , and actually attending a Tour stage requires a fair bit of planning, you need to know the route, and a way to get to the route on roads that arent necessarily going to be open, especially on mountain climb sections, its not something you wake up on the morning of the stage and decide to do.
weve seen spectators (I hesitate to call them fans) run alongside riders in races for years, it used to be more apparent at the Tour of California (infact google it and the top images returned for that race are a fans running alongside the race with flags), which has just seeped into Euro conciousness and deemed acceptable behaviour because no-one calls them out for it, and no-one in authority steps in to curb the excess, plus theyre all 3 sheets to the wind by the time the race passes them so wouldnt listen anyway.
I forget which stage it was but there was a guy running slowly (probably as fast as he could) alongside riders on a climb, being a nuiscance, and a younger quicker guy behind him who tried to push him out of the way as he wanted to be on tv instead and it very much looked like it ended in fisticuffs between those two but the moto camera went round a bend and we never saw what happened next.
but I think more people are obsessed by trying to get themselves either on tv (Opi Omi), or have snaps of major events on their phones so they can post to their twitfeeds,faceaches or socials and it drives less respectful behaviour towards the riders because youve gotta get that shot, or youve gotta be the one the camera lingers on, so as to boast to your friends about it, or get that endorphin rush of likes rolling in.
I dont know how you fix it though.
Alternative view.
Alternative view.
Unacceptably piss poor organisation putting racers and support staff in jeopardy.
Someone should sue.
The problem is that this is
The problem is that this is part of the TdF and what makes it so good. Watching as a sea of spectators parts just in time for the rides to go through on the mountain stages. People running alongside the riders screaming encouragement. If you want to sterilise it by making everyone sit behind barriers then fine but the TdF will be poorer for it.
Humans are just self centred idiots unfortunately and it seems to be getting worse as the years pass. Considering how mad the crowds are its amazing there aren’t more issues.
Personally I love that aspect of it but people need to have respect for the riders and perhaps the crowds need to be far better marshalled. You could probably just have police or marshalls pulling people out who are clearly behaving dangerously and causing potential issues.
After a while people would pay more attention to the race and less to their smartphones if it got them kicked off the mountain.
The organisers get away with
The organisers get away with a lot – and too many commentators defend it ” as part of the sport”. Which is nonsense really. No other major sporting event would allow spectators to influence an event…….
The ASO are meant to be rolling in money, maybe they could actually spend some of their money on marshalling spectators better….
Or more likely, the TdF is nowhere near as big as they think, and the money it brings in is actually peanuts compred to the really big sporting events.