Problems of Success
Van Wijnendaele could count the spectators at the end of the first Rondes, and the same went for those along the road. By the 1930s things had changed enough that the writer, Stijn Streuvels, wrote to Sportwereld in 1937 that the Ronde as seen from his house in Ingooigem was "more a procession of cars than of riders." The historian Rik Vanwalleghem speaks of a "wild rodeo" of spectators driving behind the race and seeking short cuts across the course to see the race pass several times. He said the police estimated the crowd for early races at 500,000. They followed the race, overtook it when they could, or stood so thick by the roadside in villages and especially at control points that the riders sometimes had trouble passing.
Van Wijnendaele involved the gendarmerie in 1933 but to limited effect. The 1937 race was chaotic. On 30 March 1938, van Wijnendaele wrote in Sportwereld:
- To control as far as possible the plague of race-followers and assure the dependable running of our races, we have sent an exceptional request to the roads ministry to have our race followed by several gendarmes on motorbikes... They will have the right to penalise anybody following the race without permission.
The influence of spectators never ended. In 1963, Louis De Lentdecker wrote in Het Nieuwsblad:
- In the last 100km of the race we were in the immediate area of the first riders. We barely saw them: there were so many people along the road and on the road that you had the impression of drowning in a tsunami ... In front of me, behind me and beside me I saw cars being driven crazily through orchards, on the sidewalks, along cycle paths, behind spectators, in front of spectators. I felt bumps and bangs on the back of our car. If there were no accidents it was only because our dear Lord and his guardian angels were the best men in the race.
Read more about this topic: Tour Of Flanders
Famous quotes containing the words problems of, problems and/or success:
“An interesting play cannot in the nature of things mean anything but a play in which problems of conduct and character of personal importance to the audience are raised and suggestively discussed.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary, it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. Failure makes people cruel and bitter.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)