Ok so his target number of TdF's are less to become GOAT. The record's what 5? Surely he's got an excellent chance of passing that?

They do; they fine riders who push idiots out of the way. Froome should have been given a reward for crowd control for punching a clown not a fine.

Oh and the Police should just take any one in a mankinny or wearing joke pubic hair into protective custody long before the riders appear.

I can categorically state that I have as many Tour de France titles as Lance Armstrong!

Why on earth would people boo Froome, what exactly did he do to warrant being booed??

If the "fans" are close enough to touch the riders, or to be even pushed/punched out of the way, that that is on the UCI and the police, that simply should not be the case at all ever.

The fans should not be allowed to dictate what time a rider gets, the only person who should dictate what time a rider gets should be the rider themselves.

Absolutely; if nothing else no more riders should be fined for punching fans; if they are that close 'fans' deserve all they get.

i still cannot understand why lance had his titles removed and clear dopers are still allowed their victories.

Exactly, if the so called "fans" (who are not fans at all, just merely idiots looking to get themselves on TV) are close enough to get punched, then they fully deserve it.

They should be stood well back, and allow the racers to race, watching them do their simply amazing thing, is what the race should be all about, not trying to dodge idiots.

Remove the word "and" and substitute the word with "when" and I would have more sympathy with your point of view.

I assumed they would give froome and porte the same time as mollema

the TdF were a bit lucky that Mollema was able to finish ahead of the other contenders. It gave them an easy call, I think. It meant the three of them took 19 seconds, although they would have taken rather more, I think.

Richie Porte was unlucky to puncture on the early stage, or he would have been very close now.

I think the motor bikes will have to be a bit further away from the cyclists in future.

How many instances such as this incident have happened in the entire history of the Tour? This was an extreme incident that affected the leaders, banning spectators is not the answer, limiting them possibly, marshalling them, impossible. If you want a tour with no spectators then by all means go for it, I for one won't be watching. Spectators are the lifeblood of the tour.

No, I don't mean no spectators at all on the tour, I mean cut them back on the hills, so we don't have to see them wade through them like we have on so many occasions previously.

Mollema on Twitter:

Bauke should know by now some pro cyclists are more equal than other pro cyclists.

On a more positive note. Lindeman who is from my home town came in sixth. Best result for someone from Assen ever. (The other pro cyclist from Assen, Marc de Maar has not competed in the Tour so far).

Jokes are coming in...
Froome should be disqualified. He did not keep one foot on the ground at all times during his racewalking stint...

Very likely we will see a rider's strike or work-to-rule on Saturday, I reckon.

Quite a few. Eddie Merckx was punched by a fan in 1971?, had to withdraw.

There was a time trial up the alp d'huez a few years ago that was mad due to the huge volume of spectators.
Surprised nothing like today hadn't happened before (not sure lance and the bag lady counts).

Actually, there is a rule that disqualifies any rider not completing the whole course with a bike.

It is often seen with pile ups in the finish straight. The riders have to pick up their shattered carbon frames and walk across the line with them. Leaving them behind is not an option.

In the early days of the Keirin about 15 years back someone won a World Champs bronze medal by being the first person to recover from a crash and having the presence of mind to run across the line carrying his bike.

I don't mind the volume of spectators, the more the better, just keep them off of the road, and completely out of the cyclists way.
Let the racers do what they do so spectacularly well, and that is race their bikes against each other.

Why on earth the UCI think it is fine and dandy to have the race keep on being disrupted by fans, I have no idea, it is just not on.

Racers should be protected from the fans, just as they are at the finishing line.
Why should other parts of the course be open to fans disrupting the race, all parts of the race should be made so that the fans cannot get in touching distance to the riders.

Mavic are the neutral service vehicles sponsors - so will use Mavic pedals (or maybe Time). Team Sky ride Shimano - which will vary just slightly but enough from the Mavic/Time ones. Usually not a problem because a team mate will hand over their bike to the team leader - it was the whole situation for Chris - he didn't have a team mate with him and the Team car was way behind. On the flat he could have got by without clipping in - on the vertical, not so much.

I've stood on the side of more European roads than you can count and marshalled on a few as well. By and large, the fans are amazing, time trials, flat stages, team time trials people seem to be able to use their heads - but something happens when the road goes vertical. Whether it's because, these days, to get a spot you basically have to spend 3 weeks in a camper van at the side of the road (with the equivalent amount of alcohol) or because the entire stage is televised these days and anybody with a mankini and a flag can get their few minutes of air time (we used to pick ourselves out on the highlights by the barrier hordings, not because it was where the nuddy bloke was) I don't know, but something needs to be done. In the 30 or so years I've been following, crowd behaviour has definitely changed.

The fans are amazing, and all of the costumes etc are great, the more if them the better, just keep them off of the road, it can not be that hard to have rule like that can it??

Let the racers race, and let the spectators watch them race, instead of interfering in the race.

Saw the highlights - shocking to see it in real time.
The worst bit was froome saying his bike was broken by the motorcycle from behind - why was that so close to him?

It really is hard to explain just how much it has changed and got bigger over the last 30 odd years. Even just going back to the Indurain days, you could stumble across him in the street. The English speaking riders used to hear an English voice and come over for a chat. Many's the time I've given cricket scores to Aussie riders . It's the lack of any barrier between them and us that makes cycling unique - but vunerable.

You can't barrier an entire stage - and to be honest there is no particular need to, but the summits definitely need looking at.

I think it everyone had just got choked up in the crowd. I guess they couldn't pick out the riders from the spectators until it was too late.

That doesn't explain being hit from behind though.