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Just Another Day at the Tour: Livestock Edition

In which the number of potential obstacles increases by one.

By Chris Fontecchio
Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Quick, what do you think of when you think of fans of the Tour de France? Could it be... Basque fans?

Could it be idiots running in the streets?

Could it be idiot Basque fans running in the streets?

[Video does not and never will exist.]

Whatever it is, the Tour de France would like you to know that they are watching, and while they can't literally police 3000 kilometers of barely-closed roads, they released a video today from which you can glean helpful advice to make this a safe and enjoyable Tour de France, for all of us.

That's great, except not everyone has access to the internet. And even if they did, the message wouldn't have gotten out in time to prevent this incident from yesterday:

French hopeful Warren Barguil narrowly avoided this cow crossing on the descent of the Col du Tourmalet Wednesday, in an episode that looks harmless enough, thanks in part to the fact that Barguil is a professional in a sport where fans are constantly doing stuff exactly like this, all the time, only with "drunken stupor" replacing "inter-species misunderstanding" as the excuse. To their credit, the cows seemed to figure out the score about as quickly if not more so than your average knot of cycling fans who've been partying by the side of the road for 17 hours straight. This despite being pulled by a primeval urge to score some fresh grass, which is on par with a typical fan's urge to scurry across the road to where the portajohns are. In the end it was no big deal.

Could've been different though. Here's what else that wide, non-technical descent of the Tourmalet was known for:

And yeah, the Tour simply can't YouTube its way to absolute safety.

Reason #175 why cycling is better than your other favorite sport: the real world. It's there. You're racing through it. Get used to it.

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