Air gun shooting at Tour
by Gemma on Jul 17, 2009 4:26 PM EDT
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News is just breaking at the moment (so not too many details available) that some idiot shot an air or BB gun at the riders at the top of one of the climbs on today's stage. Oscar Freire and Julian Dean got caught by a pellet each it seems. Neither seriously hurt - Dean has a minor finger injury and Freire has had a pellet removed.
Police investigation has been opened but ASO making no further comment till tomorrow.
Story at Reuters here
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Absolutely abhorable behavior
and criminal… I hope they catch the perpetrator(s) and bring them to justice.
Many pellet guns shoot at 1000+ FPS and can be lethal if they hit certain areas of the body (neck, temple, etc.)
by IowaAC on Jul 17, 2009 4:52 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Classic.
"…I saw bloody Cavendish coming, really fast…"
HH
by ELVISGOAT on Jul 17, 2009 5:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
ahhh a copper BB
not a pellet. Still very dangerous. For example purposes, for those who don’t know about modern air rifle performance, the air rifle below is just $170 or so and shoots a BB at 1200 FPS.
As a comparison, a 22 caliber RIFLE shoots at 1100 FPS. Granted, a 22 caliber rifle shoots a 40 grain bullet at 1100 fps is is MUCH more dangerous, but as you can see, a BB at 1200 fps is a VERY serious matter, and I hope the authorities treat it like any other rifle attack, and not blow it off as a prank airgun incident.
by IowaAC on Jul 17, 2009 5:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I nominate the asshat perpatrator
for an official PdC cock-punching.
Brooklyn Chewing Gum: Vlaanderens Mooiste
by Koppenberg on Jul 17, 2009 5:28 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
goes beyond cp
Stuff like this could kill cycling faster than doping.
by R Mc on Jul 17, 2009 5:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
time to organize the blanket party
"Race radios in Cat 4?"
by gravel road on Jul 17, 2009 6:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Pop Quiz
A Grand Tour full of the best cyclists in the world rolls through your town. Do you:
A. Chalk encouraging messages on the road.
B. Stand outside and wave the flag of your choice, shouting happily at the top of your lungs.
C. Make platters of pastries and offer them to the riders as they go by.
D. Shoot them with an air gun.
by majope on Jul 17, 2009 6:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
You forgot...
E. Moon them.
But really, this is the worst kind of fuckery.
by gavia on Jul 17, 2009 6:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed
If this is a prank, and not something much more sinister, I’m really coming up empty trying to imagine the thought process where you go, ‘hey let’s take pot shots at those guys in that great big pack of guys who are going really fast on the road over there!’
I may have to rethink my views on involuntary commitment based on IQ
by Ed K on Jul 17, 2009 6:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
you should spend more time
west of Philly :)
(this is classic redneck drunk. And that’s a universal, I’m sad to say.)
by Sui Juris on Jul 17, 2009 6:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
yep, 'fraid so
Highly doubt it involved thinking, just beverages.
by gavia on Jul 17, 2009 7:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Perhaps
But you have to think the gun was packed for the trip before beverages were consumed. That’s an odd method for entertainment while you’re waiting for the riders to come by.
Jens Voigt doesn’t know where you live, but he knows exactly where you will die.
by OnTheRivet on Jul 17, 2009 11:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Oh God...
Reminds me of a joke that this girl I knew in college who grew up in State College used to tell about Pennsylvania geography.
There are two things between Philly and Pittsburgh: State College and the NRA.
But yes, point taken. Doesn’t mean I can follow the thought process though.
by Ed K on Jul 17, 2009 7:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
look for the chateau
with all the busted down Renault’s in the front yard…
"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!
by jsallee00 on Jul 17, 2009 7:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
can't think of a better word than fuckery
to describe these incidents
by nicknorco on Jul 17, 2009 9:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
F
Get dressed up in a bizarre costume, with or without the horns of some large animal, and run in front of them as they go uphill.
by Ed K on Jul 17, 2009 6:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Still better than shooting them with an airgun.
What is French for redneck? Cou rouge? Or since they were in the Alsace today, should it be rot Hals?
by majope on Jul 17, 2009 6:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Because language questions like that are irresistible to me:
Google lists: rustre
which also translates as: peasant, yokel, boorish, churl, swab, swob, and yahoo.
Harper-Collins Robert lists nothing, but it doesn’t do nearly as much with colloquial expressions. It does add lout to the definition of rustre, though, so I think that would get us into the ballpark.
by Ed K on Jul 17, 2009 7:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
imbecile?
tete-de-merde?
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on Columbia, Roll on!
by Chris... on Jul 17, 2009 7:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Those are both good
Idiot is pretty good as well… in both languages
by MathieuG on Jul 17, 2009 10:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
plouc, though it doesn’t have all the negative/violent connotations, very common
by plinytheelder on Jul 17, 2009 8:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
M Hinault
I feel ashamed that it has taken such a bizarre topic to draw me out from lurker-dom, but I can’t believe nobody has suggested our Bernard as the perpetrator – taking a pot-shot at any random Frenchman languishing at the rear of the peloton, “pour engourager les autres”.
by straw dog on Jul 17, 2009 11:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
That is the most plausible thing I have heard so far.
Jens Voigt doesn’t know where you live, but he knows exactly where you will die.
by OnTheRivet on Jul 17, 2009 11:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Nah - Someone was aiming for Cav
they missed.
Dude, I can see my house from here
by shades on Jul 17, 2009 11:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The shooter cold not have been French . . .
. . . be cause they don’t even shot at foreigners that invading them! Must have been an beer-crazed uber-Schloogie.
by DeathBredon on Jul 18, 2009 4:58 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
nicholas roche writes about being shot at the village depart prior to a stage last week in his tour diary
[sic]. Yesterday morning, I was sitting talking to one of the main bosses of Ag2r, an agricultural insurance company that sponsors our team, when a massive bang — like a gunshot — went off.
Immediately, I felt a sting behind my left knee. I looked down to see blood pouring from my leg and a massive bruise appearing at the back of my knee around the tendon area. I had been shot!
source
thanks to cfa for the link
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
by umwolverine on Jul 18, 2009 6:58 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
tho, in a later diary entry, roche relays results of police investigation
I also found out that there was a police investigation into the incident that left me with a massive bruise on my leg. The gendarmes confirmed it was an exploding ice compressor.
But just to keep the conspiracy theory going, my soigneur (assistant) told me that as I lay on the ground clutching my leg, he ran around the back of the lorries to find an old guy bent over laughing. When my soigneur confronted him he said ‘ah they were only having a bit of fun’, which makes me think somebody did do it on purpose…
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
by umwolverine on Jul 18, 2009 7:15 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
don't know how far those things travel
Any chance someone a distance away was taking potshots at birds? Location of the wound seems to say not, though.
by JFS_PGH on Jul 18, 2009 12:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
P&P
said that they understood that the police think they’ve sorted it, and that it sounds like kids.
by Sui Juris on Jul 18, 2009 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
heard that
then they were wondering how old a kid can be and still be called “enfant” by the gendarmes.
by JFS_PGH on Jul 19, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
so the correct translation is
les douchebags.
by Sui Juris on Jul 19, 2009 8:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Julian Dean penned piece in the Sunday paper "Stone me! I was shot and didn't know it "
spotted this in the ol’ Sunday paper, almost made up for the fact there was no Clarkson innit this week. almost .
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/sport/2606880/Stone-me-I-was-shot-and-didn-t-know-it
Dude, I can see my house from here
by shades on Jul 20, 2009 8:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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