If this grown man scrambling for a discarded bidon was your father; you'd never look him in the eye again. It's just one of our five quirky media stories, below, from the great race.
The first days of the Tour de France have been frantic, so you may have missed some great media-based stories knocking around.
We've put together five of them for your digestion; from the quirky to the sad to the clever and very skinny.
1. Fan fail - really, really cringe inducing
No words are really needed with this one. It's stage 2 of the Tour de France. One of the BMC lads throws a bottle away and a (grown) man in the crowd scrambles for it like he's running to save a child's life. Then he falls, but still has the presence of mind - desperation and lack of shame - to complete the capture. It's all caught on film, slowed down and posted on the internet for maximum embarrassment. Oh well, at least he's (hopefully) not recognisable.
Advertisement
2. Chris Froome's very skinny arms
Last year we brought you a photo story about Chris Froome's very skinny and ripped legs. Now it's his arms' turn. He's not one for a bag of chips and a batter burger after a skinful of pints, is he?
Related News
3. Utrecht's stunning bike parking facilities
When the Tour de France came to Dublin a massive drugs scandal emerged in the shape of the Festina affair. The riders then raced around Ireland for a few days and off they went for the race to properly implode on French soil. Then came the Patron Saint of Cancer Lance Armstrong and everything was, erm, grand again. We Irish waited another decade before anything was done to develop cycling. But Holland long had its cycling act sorted before the Tour began in Utrecht on Saturday; this video of the massive indoor bike park indicative of how they’ve put cycling at the centre of planning their city.
4. Jonny Hoogerland's Tour absence in Zeeland home region
With the Tour racing through the Zeeland region of Holland in recent days, it was a real shame not to see one of the area's favourite sons Johnny Hoogerland lining out. The Dutchman has always been a great competitor. He further endeared himself with fans when he was shunted from the Tour breakaway into a barbed wire fence by a TV vehicle on stage 9 four years ago. Cut to pieces and with blood streaming down his legs and buttocks he remounted and finished the stage, taking the climbers' jersey in the process. How has he been since then? Not great, to be honest. Have a read of this insightful interview with him in the magnificent Rouleur and decide for yourself.
5. Tour de France big data
Wondering what these things protruding from the saddles of the Tour riders are? This year Dimension Data has teamed up with the race as a new IT partner. It is tracking the race much more closely than ever before using the technological advances of recent years. The race’s partnership with GoPro brings fans footage recorded on bike-mounted cameras inside the peloton. And the new deal with Dimension Data essentially aims to bring use more information than ever about the riders, all thanks to the tracking devices, above, under their saddles. To register for a daily data wrap during the race, click here. And to follow Le Tour Data on Twitter, click here.
Topics
