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Air gun shooting at Tour


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  

Classic.

"…I saw bloody Cavendish coming, really fast…"
HH

by ELVISGOAT on Jul 17, 2009 5:21 PM EDT reply actions  

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  

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  

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  

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  

E

Run with a baby!

by Noah on Jul 17, 2009 6:42 PM EDT up reply actions  

F

Offer the first one to reach the town his weight in butter.

Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on Columbia, Roll on!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 17, 2009 7:54 PM EDT up reply actions  

You forgot...

E. Moon them.

But really, this is the worst kind of fuckery.

by Jen See on Jul 17, 2009 6:45 PM EDT up reply actions  

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  

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  

yep, 'fraid so

Highly doubt it involved thinking, just beverages.

by Jen See on Jul 17, 2009 7:01 PM EDT up reply actions  

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  

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  

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  

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  

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  

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  

imbecile?

tete-de-merde?

Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on Columbia, Roll on!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 17, 2009 7:56 PM EDT up reply actions  

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  

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  

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  

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  

hey

where IS BradBordeaux anyway?

Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on Columbia, Roll on!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 18, 2009 3:23 AM EDT up reply actions  

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  

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  

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…

source

"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  

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  

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  

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  

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  

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