TOUR DE LANCE
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James Joyner | Tuesday, July 15, 2003 |
ESPN reports a rather bizarre incident in the Tour de Annoying Country:
Lance Armstrong kept his overall lead in the Tour de France on Tuesday despite losing time after being stuck in a pack of riders blocked by street protesters.***
The protest forced riders to stop after supporters of radical farmer Jose Bove ran into the road and blocked cyclists near Pourrieres, about 91 miles into the race.
Tour officials immediately ruled the protest was a “normal race incident,” meaning riders would have to suffer the penalties of being caught in the protest. However, Armstrong’s main rivals got caught in the pack as well, so his overall lead was not affected.
A day earlier on Bastille Day, away from the Tour, police arrested six protesters, including three carrying banners in support of Bove. He was jailed last month for destroying genetically modified crops and served about six weeks in jail in 2002 for ransacking a McDonald’s restaurant construction site.
Normal race incident?
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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In France, thats a normal race incident ...
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