After days of concern leading into Stage 19, and days of fans pre-game partying on the slopes of Alpe d’Huez, it finally happened. Over exuberant and disrespectful fans caused a rider to crash, and abandon the Tour de France.
While Tadej Pogaċar and Remco Evenepoel were held up to some degree, with SBS Sports showing an attempted attack the latter being slowed by a crush of fans, both escaped comparatively unhindered. Which is kind of wild to say. An attack by a rider in podium position was cut short by so-called fans, and it’s not the worst thing to happen on the day?
Watching the video above is not great. But not the worst thing to happen on Alpe d’Huez on Friday, somehow.
The worst thing happened just a short distance behind. Overly rowdy fans forced UAE Emirates team car to stop suddenly. Movistar’s Einer Rubio had no time to stop (and now where to go) and slams into the back of the car, slumping down onto the road.
“Helpful” fans pull the Colombian off the road, and out of the way of a fast-moving Decathlon team car approaching from behind. But Rubio is forced to abandon the race.
While Rubio isn’t Pogačar, he also wasn’t far back. This kind of terrible behaviour very much impacted riders near the front of the race. Before abandoning, the Movistar rider was just two spots behind Canada’s Derek Gee-West on GC. On Friday’s stage, he was climbing up near the front of the race.
Which makes one question unavoidable, as unavoidable as that UAE team car: is this still a race? Or just a spectacle?
Einer Rubio ha abandonado la carrera durante la ascensión a Alpe d’Huez.
Ampliaremos la información tan pronto como sea posible. pic.twitter.com/3sMuXQQsdo
— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) July 24, 2026
A fraught balance
Now, enthusiastic fans are a big part of cycling’s culture. Cramming huge crowds onto the side of iconic climbs like Alpe d’Huez is part of cycling’s tradition. The opportunity to see your heroes up close, without spending thousands on court side seats, is repeatedly touted as what sets cycling apart from other sports.
But are they really your heroes if your actions leave them lying on the pavement unable to continue racing?
This isn’t the first, or even second or third time fan behaviour has impacted racing. Or even the worst. While Rubio was having a good day, and it is tragic that his race ends just two days from Paris, stage winners and GC favourites have had serious interactions with crushing crowds of fans in the past.
It is to the point where Visma-Lease A Bike’s boss, Richard Plugge warned before Stage 19 that fans were one of the two biggest threats to rider safety.
“If there’s one big threat to the Tour, it’s two things,” Plugge said. “The roads and the course are becoming more dangerous, and then there’s the audience. People just jump in front of you.”
Despite numerous incidents in the past, the men in charge of cycling have resoundly rebuffed suggestions of changes. While the final kilometres of Friday’s stage were fenced off, obviously that didn’t deter crowds from the other 9-10km of the climb. When Jérôme Pineau suggested paid zones on Alpe d’Huez in the lead up to this year’s Tour, the idea was shot down promptly by ASO and theUCI.
ASO’s Pierre-Yves Thouault chatted with DH Les Sports about the idea once. “Cycling is, by nature, free to watch,” he said, saying tickets “are simply not on the table.”
UCI chief David Lappartient also already weighed in on the idea in 2025.
“If you try to get people to pay to see the Tour, you get huge resistance,” he said to Ouest-France.
Seems like the riders are also getting huge resistance in their effort to actually participate in the race. At some point, that has to be a serious consideration too, no?