At the Tour de France, they had certainly imagined the return to normalcy to be different.
Instead of celebrating the great atmosphere created by the numerous fans along the route, there was only one topic after the start in Brest: A woman in a yellow rain jacket with a large cardboard sign - which Tony Martin crashed into at high speed and triggered a mass fall.
“Some viewers simply don't have any respect and don't even turn their heads on,” Martin grumbled.
The 36-year-old suffered numerous bruises and wounds, luckily he was spared broken bones. Nevertheless, Martin threatens another tour of suffering. The veteran will probably have the pain as far as Paris. “It was a racing situation that exists all the time on the Tour. Normally you have to assume that the audience will then move to the side, ”said Martin. "Allez Opi Omi" was on the sign that the spectator stopped in the street. That is probably why the French media speculated that the woman could be German.
The tour organization ASO wants to turn on the judiciary in the case. "We are going to sue the woman who behaved so badly," said Deputy Race Director Pierre-Yves Thouault at AFP. "We do this so that the small minority does not spoil the show for the rest of the world." According to various media reports, however, the woman has searched the distance and has not yet been found. The gendarmerie confirmed on Sunday that an investigation had started against them.
OSA and police hit the nerve of the driver. “The Deppin should be reported in my opinion. It just doesn't work, on purpose or not, ”said Berlin professional Simon Geschke to“ Cyclingmagazine ”. At the end of the stage - there was another mass crash shortly before the finish line - four drivers had to give up the race. Including Jasha Sütterlin from Freiburg. The "L'Équipe" wrote full of pathos about the "Breton ordeal".
The closeness to the fans is definitely wanted. It is, so to speak, the unique selling point of cycling that you can get very close to your heroes during the stage. Sometimes too close. Martin's audience fall was not the first on the tour. Unforgettable is the yellow bag of a fan on which Lance Armstrong got stuck on the final climb to Luz Ardiden in 2003 and fell. Jan Ullrich was waiting for his long-time rival, the American won the stage in the end.
Ullrich's former team-mate Giuseppe Guerini was on the way to a stage win in Alpe d'Huez in 1999. A spectator wanted to photograph the Italian, but stood in the middle of the street. Guerini drove into the fan and fell, but still won the stage. In recent years, the organizers have therefore switched to securing the last kilometers with fences even during mountain stages.
Falls are the order of the day, especially in the first hectic week of the tour. On the first stage, too, the peloton was not spared one of these typical mass crashes. Not only did André Greipel fall 7.5 kilometers from the finish line, but also four-time winner Chris Froome on his tour comeback two years after his serious fall. The Briton did not suffer any fractures, but it was difficult to get back on the bike. Like Martin, Froome has a few painful days and nights ahead of him.