UKC

Well its finished and what a wonderful tour its been this year. What with Cav getting his record 35th win, Biniam Girmay being the first African to win a stage and the Green Jersey. And the battle between the top four tour riders in the world its been a great event.

The only thing which spoils it for me is the way the riders discard their drink bottles and food rappers into the road and hedges. Why do they do it ?. I know a lot of spectators pick up the bottles as souveniers but i'm sure most just end up in the hedge rows. I know there are dedicated litter drop areas along the routes as well. But not much heed is taken of these from what i've noticed.

I've even noticed riders who've returned to their respective team car for fresh bottles and instead of handing back their empties to the driver they throw them into the roadside. One time a rider received a food bar from the car, took one look at it and decided he didn't want it and instead of handing it back just dropped it into  the road.

I've always thought the 'broom wagon' was for scooping up riders the can't meet the cut off time not to actually sweep the road as well.

Anyway i still enjoyed the race.

Alan 

Several riders did get fined 500SF for disposing of litter outside of the designated zones.

On one hand I don't think it's sensible to return to risers being disqualified for giving spectators empty bottles outside of the feed zones.

On the other I think the zones are now too long (2k?) I think this was due to safety concerns, but would prefer a return to a few hundred meters. Even then, as you say, the optics aren't great, and feeds into the arguments I've had with too many parents around the school employing cleaners to clean up their little darlings mess. Perhaps going through feed zones could be a time for the broadcaster to show a few arty shorts or a closeup of the local chateau. 

Thanks for the explanation Rob. I didn,t know about the 2k zone or the fines. I,m a mountain biker so don't ride the roads if i can help it (too dangerous).

Maybe they should subscribe to this...  https://www.trashfreetrails.org/  or are they above all this?

Food rappers can be pretty infuriating…  youtube.com/watch?v=wLT53hGoa6M&

I normally dispose of my Mackie D litter while I'm zooming through Glossop

Name and shame! 

I've generally been quite impressed at how little I've noticed wanton littering on the live footage of races in recent years - or at least at many riders seeming to return wrappers to jerseys. Probably they're more careful when they know there's a camera nearby, mind. The only notable incident that stick in my mind from this year's tour was Richard Carapaz (if memory serves) a few days ago - but that may well have been in a designated zone anyway.
And for balance, Gary specifically picked out young Tufty getting a bottle from his team car and then chucking the empty into the next car he passed (not his team car). An inspiration for all the kiddies 

I’ve seen far stranger and weird shit in Glossop than a bloke walking down the high street with a laptop on a conference call