Einer Rubio<\/a>. The Movistar Team rider struck the rear window of a UAE Team Emirates \u2013 XRG car after the vehicle braked sharply. Rubio suffered facial injuries requiring around 20 stitches and was forced to leave the Tour.<\/p>\n\u201cJust look at what happened to Rubio,\u201d Zonneveld said. \u201cHe\u2019s just some guy who fell on the asphalt, and the UAE car had to slam on the brakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zonneveld placed responsibility with ASO, arguing that the organisers had accepted unsafe conditions to preserve the images associated with the Tour\u2019s most famous climbs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s simply because ASO refuses to do anything about crowd control, because it\u2019s \u2018cool\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cI really don\u2019t think it\u2019s cool at all. I want to watch sport, not idiots who want to run alongside the riders and people who stand in front of them for as long as possible. Why do you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Alpe d\u2019Huez has long been defined by the proximity of its crowds, but stage 19 brought repeated interference with both the sporting contest and the convoy around it. Evenepoel\u2019s attack was disrupted, riders feared flags becoming caught in their wheels and Rubio\u2019s race ended against the back of a team car.<\/p>\n
Zonneveld calls for barriers and punishment<\/p>\n
Zonneveld also criticised supporters who moved into the road or ran alongside riders in an attempt to appear on television.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if there\u2019s 30 centimetres of space, there are still people who want to run along just to get on television,\u201d he said. \u201cIs it really that important to be on television? You\u2019re still part of it even if you\u2019re standing on the sidelines. The people who stood behind the barriers at Turn 7 still had a really great day, didn\u2019t they? You don\u2019t have to stand right in the middle of the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
He suggested asking spectators arriving at the foot of the climb to contribute five euros towards additional barriers, security and large screens.<\/p>\n
Zonneveld also called for running alongside riders to become a punishable offence. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t stand next to Taylor Swift on stage, or next to Messi when he\u2019s about to take a free kick, would you?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Pogacar\u2019s record-breaking victory delivered another celebrated chapter in the history of Alpe d\u2019Huez, but the surrounding scenes strengthened calls for tighter controls on cycling\u2019s busiest climbs. Zonneveld\u2019s criticism was aimed not only at spectators who crossed the line, but at an organiser he believes has allowed those images to become part of the attraction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI just don\u2019t get it. ASO thinks the footage is fantastic. That\u2019s what they\u2019re doing it for,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,127163,101,116856,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-711491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-einer-rubio","tag-sports","tag-thijs-zonneveld","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}