Friday 15 July 2016 09:41, UK
Stephen Roche has described the chaotic scenes at the end of Thursday's Tour de France stage on Mont Ventoux as a "freak one-off" and says barriers are not the solution to crowd congestion.
Chris Froome, Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema all crashed when they ploughed into the back of a race motorbike that had been forced to stop by the volume of fans on the road.
Porte afterwards said the crowds were out of control, while Team Sky sports director Nicolas Portal said the number of people on the road was "crazy".
Roche, who won the Tour in 1987, believes the relocation of the finish line from the summit of Mont Ventoux to 6km further down the mountain was the sole reason for the incident and insists a lack of barriers was not to blame.
He told Sky Sports: "We must not forget that the reason there were so many people on the road was that the stage was shortened. That's not something that happens on every mountain stage. It was an unusual scenario.
"The race organisers managed to get barriers part of the way down from the finish line, but below that, there were many more people on the road than there normally would have been.
"It's difficult to point the finger of blame at the organisers or the fans or whoever, but at the same time, it's time to take measures and this should be a lesson as to what can happen with spectators. It was a freak one-off, but it was also a warning that this sport has a problem and it needs tackling."
Barricading the entirety of climbs would solve the problem of fans getting too close to riders, but Roche does not think it is a feasible or appropriate solution.
He added: "There have to be measures put in place, but barriers alone aren't going to stop it.
"It would be almost impossible to have barriers on the full climb. A lot of these mountains have a drop down at one side or a bank at the other side and you can only fit so many people behind the barriers.
"For example, you can't barricade off Alpe d'Huez for the full climb, and if you did, you would only get half the people there, which would take away from the atmosphere.
"One of the wonderful things about cycling is fans can get closer to athletes than in any other sports, and if you put them behind barriers, that would be a great loss to cycling."
Roche believes the culture among cycling spectators needs to be tackled in a similar way to football's crackdown on hooliganism.
He said: "I think what should be done is we should follow the lead of how football has tackled hooliganism and develop ways of identifying the people who get too close to riders and make sure they don't go to the race.
"Make them check into a police station on the day of a mountain stage."
The Tour continues on Friday with a 37.5km individual time trial on stage 12. Find out more about the route in our race guide and follow the stage with our live blog from 12pm BST.
