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Whichever way you look at it, it'll be a shit storm from someone's perspective..
I'm struggling to think of something as chaotic* in previous races but really the incident is born of its times:
More spectators
More spectators 'interacting with the race' - to get on TV, selfies etc etc
More motorbikes
More "safety" - counterintuitive but the shortening of the stage forced thousands of fans 6km down the mountain, clogging the last km to Chalet ReynardFrom what I can gather, all teams** accept the decision. That says a lot.
*Guerini on Alpe d'Huez springs to mind...
** Valverde is probably moaning somewhere.
hms-
It's also another French, er, unfortunate incident this summer. There have been a lot - rampant strikes, rubbish piling up in the streets, poor security and organisation at the Euros and the Eiffel Tower closed for safety reasons.
I think the country is still technically under emergency rule after the Paris attacks in November. The security focus was meant to move to the Tour after the Euros - when you see how close the crowds were up Ventoux today it's hard to believe that.
On Bastille day as well...
Fox
Quintana wasn't even in the Yates group. This is a jury mess up