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but there's also a helluva lot of nasty nationalistic nonsense out there which wouldn't look out of place on the football terraces.
"Such was the passion that the first Tour created in spectators and riders that Desgrange said the 1904 Tour de France would be the last. Cheating was rife and riders were beaten up by rival fans as they neared the top of the col de la République, sometimes called the col du Grand Bois, outside St-Étienne."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France
Not like the good old days ;-)
Lots of people were duped by Lance Armstrong, don't want to be duped again so treat everything with total scepticism.