For stopping his ride to kiss his family, Bernard was slapped with a fine of 200 Swiss francs ($223) by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) for what the governing body deemed “unseemly or inappropriate behavior during the race and damage to the image of sport.”
Rules are rules.
Amazing scenes for Julien Bernard with incredible fan support and stopping with his family during the time trial.#TDF2024 📺: Peacock pic.twitter.com/FjIhSOWtjx
— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) July 5, 2024
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What a bunch of assholes.
Governing bodies, on the whole, are filled with Karens. Asshole-like Karens.
Good for him. Allez Julien!
"Damage to the image of the sport", what dipshits. I second Temujin.
I don't know whether or not there were other cyclists immediately behind him (it didn't look like it) but doing that in the middle of the road can be dangerous in a bike race.
Pretty ambiguous rule if you ask me. The rule of lenity demands the most favorable interpretation for the cyclist. So, if anything, the sport of cycling looks better if normal people are doing it. And cyclist did not gain an advantage -- kissing his wife slowed him down. So, I think, this is bad look for the Tour de France. But then again, maybe the cyclist was taunting his opponents?
I believe the transgression and fine were primarily due to the crowding on the road and destroying or moving the barriers.
Not that the French have any problems with that. Still, a nice moment.
Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end LC "Hollywood Bags" Greenwood wore non-standard gold, high-top shoes, and cheerfully paid the league's $100 per game fine for being out of uniform.
It's not part of the sport, so I'm ok with the fine generally. I suspect the wording is just what it says in the rule book. But we wouldn't want the NFL stopping play so Travis Kelce can plant one on Taylor Swift. Yeah, it happens in the NFL, after a touchdown or big play, but after the play. If he had kissed his family after the finish line, then I suspect no fine. And the fine was hardly a big deal. What you don't want was people blocking the path of the race, as happened.
I also fully agree with the rider enjoying that moment with his family.
Many cyclists have no reason to really care about their time trial times; eg. if they're only their to help a teammate reach the podium. I can see why it's in the organizers' interest that everyone appears to be trying to do well in each leg.
So rules against stopping and goofing around with friends mid-race make sense. A brief kiss seems minor, but there needs to be a clear line.
Cheap price to pay for marital bliss and a future sharing with the grandchildren around the dinner table.
Everything is ruined eventually
I've like this photo of
Cyclist smoking cigarettes while riding the Tour de France, 1927
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/8v91je/cyclist_smoking_cigarettes_while_riding_the_tour/
Showing back when the race was a good time and the competitors got along.
Suppose for a moment the Yellow Shirt had stopped to kiss his boyfriend. Suppose for an additional moment the boyfriend was a North African migrant...
As an Althouse cycling commentator, a few points:
First, the fact that there was a camera moto right there to capture the moment was not an accident. Enough people knew what was going on and made sure that heartwarming kiss was broadcast.
This is a time trial. Rather than riding in a pack, riders go off in one minute intervals in reverse order of the standings. (The big guns are separated by two minutes.) Unless he was being caught by the racer a minute behind, there was no other rider near him.
Julien Bernard, like half the peloton, is cannon fodder for his team leaders-he doesn't care about his overall time. Losing a minute or fifteen minutes in a stage doesn't matter as long as he isn't disqualified for missing the finishing time cutoff. The time trial is a "rest day" for many of these racers.
Finally, racers aren't always penalized when their rule violations do make a difference. For example, a racer will get a flat and lose a minute or two to the pack. He will draft off of the team cars that follow the peloton in order to not race as hard to rejoin. Illegal, but subjectively enforced.
That was "unseemly"... what?
Governing body Karens, indeed. (they'd make perfect Biden supporters)
& - what Q said @ 9:04
I'll bet that kiss tasted like salt.
Could have been worse, he could have stopped for a 5 to 7 with her, while the baby was watched by grand-mere.
IF he'd kissed a boy. That would have been alright?
The Tour de France was made possible by a man, a woman, in a tour de sexuality as humans do.
How Dare You show a normal happy marriage. Now.... if this were one of his stable of mistresses, he might have gotten a pass. The French are always amusing in their petty hypocrisies.
I understand why the authorities think they have to punish him - they don't want every rider stopping to kiss someone, especially when it is crowded.
And good on him for taking the fine like a good sport - no whining or complaining. And totally worth the relatively cheap price.
looks like he had to kiss to get past that ?gauntlet?!
Talk about tone deaf.
The cycling folks should talk to the WNBA folks about how to fuck things up...
Leland said...
"It's not part of the sport, so I'm ok with the fine generally. I suspect the wording is just what it says in the rule book."
Yeah, it's disruptive, but mildly so. And 200 French francs is $32.32, so the fine is in line with the issue being a mole hill. It's only because it's gone viral that it seems like a mountain to some.
reCAPTCHA: Select all images with pictures of bicycles.
It’s the French, so I’m assuming the problem is that he kissed his wife. If she were his mistress, they would have been fine with it.
JK Brown said...Cyclist smoking cigarettes while riding the Tour de France, 1927
My brother and his wife are such avid cyclists that they went to the bike messenger olympics for their honeymoon. They have this poster in their living room next to another of racers taking a break under a tree drinking beers.
At first glance I thought UCI was my alma mater, the U of California at Irvine. And that the apology for damaging the image of sport was made by a male student after having won a women's competition. Then I realized that such a person would never apologize.
MartyH provides useful information about cycling. May I, also a cyclist, add some more about the TDF. The Tour is chock full of small traditions. One is that when a rider passes through his hometown, everyone in the town greets, cheers, and shakes his hand. In this instance, the rider Bernard lives very close by, and this was the road on the TDF closest to his hometown. If he is riding in the peloton (the main field of riders) the other riders will stop and give him space and time to fulfill the tradition and there is no attempt to capitalize on the delay. Similarly, when riders stop to relieve themselves on the side of the road, never shown on TV to my knowledge, the other riders also pull over to relieve themselves or wait. A sport best known for its doping scandals doesn't believe in taking unfair advantage.
That’s how they made Trump a “convicted felon”.
I would also pay $223 to kiss his wife.
He's willing to pay the minimal fine. No problem.
@YanceyWard This was a time trial stage, so the nearest riders were roughly a minute ahead and behind. In this kind of stage, only riders with a shot at the top 10 overall are actually going hard. Everyone else is simply going hard enough to avoid the time cut, and saving energy for the next day.
I totally agree with the man. Now how much is the fine for giving them the finger? (220 SFr. = $223 USD currently btw.)
I'm happy for him, and a great day IS a great day. Take it all in! However, even though it's a Wisconsin company, and I own two of them, Trek is a pretty sleazy company. They mess up most things they are associated with and appear to have no awareness of it all.
That said, Bernard had a lovely ride in a lovely place, on a gorgeous day, and has beautiful family. He should stay away from Treks though.
I realize that's not possible.
Penn Jillette once pointed out that a $1000 fine for killing manatees is the same as a $1000 manatee hunting license, which essentially means the government is offering a service to the wealthy that the poor cannot afford. Is that what people who care about the poor want their government to do?
Soon, poor cyclists will be unable to kiss their wives.
“don't know whether or not there were other cyclists immediately behind him (it didn't look like it) but doing that in the middle of the road can be dangerous in a bike race”.
I didn’t know it when I met her, but my girlfriend was a triathlete. The key word is was, up until the moment she got to the bottom of a hill in an event, and ran into a massive pile up, destroying her right knee, breaking an ankle and sending her into a coma. To this day she has seizures. Two riders had finished and walked into the road to take pictures. Her husband threw her away like garbage when nobody could make those scars look better or stop those seizures.
As long as it doesn't become an expected thing, where girlfriends and wives figure that they are owed a share of the glory every race, like what has happened to the PGA at the end of tournaments, where these displays are now obligatory.
Sure, @rosebud, but if you're unwilling to spend 200 Swiss francs to kiss your wife with the cameras on you during the Tour de France, you're probably not going to be kissing her at all afterwards. And as a domestique on a World Tour team, he isn't poor, and I'll bet the team pays the fine. Riders are fined for all sorts of things during stages, "sticky bottles" being one of the most common (holding on a bit too long when your team car passes you a bottle).
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