Even writing that title was strange to me. I suppose that's because here in the US, cycling isn't in any danger of overtaking soccer as the #1 European sport that people care about professionally only when an American is doing well. (I'm sure there are a bunch of fans of progessional soccer who are going to want to jump in and let me know how awesome and sophisticated soccer is. Save your breath. There is no way that I'm going to get excited about a sport where a score of 3-0 is a massive blowout.)
Anyway, getting back to the point, it seems that Lance Armstrong is concerned about the possibility of being attacked by crazed cycling fans during the 2009 Tour de France. Since one of the things that we like best about Armstrong is the fact that he annoys the French, I suppose it's no surprise that the French, in turn, are ready to act on that annoyance. And people have been attacked during the Tour before. A Belgian cyclist, Eddie Merckx, would have won 6 Tours, but was punched by a fan during the race and ended up having to drop out. I remember reading a book about the Tour a few years ago, and the author spoke about the rabid fans, the groupies, and (of course) the rampant cheating. Yes, there are cycling groupies.
Really, I think for the sake of everyone's dignity, this whole nutty cycling fan thing should have been addressed by the Marshall Plan. Maybe it's not too late to set up some kind of exchange program. We could send them our Steelers fans (hey, they're arrogant and tend to have unfortunate moustaches--I think they'd fit in fine in France), and the French cycling fans can spend some time being Buffalo Bills fans (the French are fatalistic--it's a great match).
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