This was from their "30 outrageous sporting something or others" Not sure
what number it was.
"""
TOUR DE FRANCE: THE SCANDALS THAT ROCKED CYCLING, 1904-2004
Competing on the open road is not without its hazards and the thugs who
showered Lance Armstrong with spittle on Alpe d'Huez last July were part
of an unfortunate tradition. The winner of the first Tour de France in
1904, Maurice Garin, was attacked by a spectator the following year. 'If
I'm not murdered before we reach Paris,' he said, 'I'll win again.' So he
did, only to see his victory annulled four months later after an inquest
found that he had covered part of the route by train. The first four
riders in the GC team, including Garin's younger brother César (third),
were disqualified and numerous others were fined for illegal teamwork,
travelling by car and taking short cuts. Tour director Henri Desgrange
wrote: 'The Tour is over and its second edition will also, I fear, be its
last.' The fifth-placed rider, 20-year-old Henri Cornet, was eventually
declared the winner. He remains the youngest Tour winner. Garin
temporarily quit the sport.
But the Tour would go on to greater and worse things: in 1950, French
crowds despaired as the all-powerful Italians rode towards their third
consecutive Tour win. On the Aspin pass in the Pyrenees, bottle tops and
stones rained down on the Italians, before the road itself was blocked.
French riders protected their vanquishers and race director Jacques Goddet
leapt into the fray brandishing a walking stick to keep the aggressors at
bay. Only police intervention allowed the stage to be completed. Gino
Bartali, the 1948 winner, raced away to victory and his team-mate Fiorenzo
Magni took over the yellow jersey. However, both forfeited their chances
of overall victory when their team withdrew later that evening, fearing
further incidents.
The most notorious example of spectator-athlete interaction in Tour
history took place in 1975. Unbeatable over any terrain, Eddy Merckx
tyrannised his peers to a degree that even Armstrong has never achieved.
This translated into five Tour wins in five starts between 1969 and 1974.
In 1973, however, he publicly snubbed the Tour after winning a historic
double of the tours of Italy and Spain in the spring. The decision of the
world's most famous Belgian to skip the Tour enraged many of its followers.
This, coupled with Merckx's overwhelming domination of the sport, drove
one French onlooker to an act of insanity in 1975. After winning stage
six, a short time-trial, to take the race lead, Merckx cemented his
advantage by taking a second time-trial on stage nine. Then, on the
notorious climb to Puy de Dôme, his energy levels began to flag. Lagging
behind his greatest rivals, eventual winner Bernard Thèvenet and 1976
champion Lucien van Impe, Merckx was trying to bridge the gap when a fist
dramatically appeared from the crowd, striking him in the kidneys. Doubled
up by the blow, Merckx finished the stage winded. He conceded less than a
minute, but his attempt to win an unprecedented sixth Tour was fatally
damaged. The following day, the perpetrator of the blow was waiting at the
stage start; he was arrested after Merckx identified him, but was later
released without charge.
Matt Rendell, author of Riding the Tour with Lance Armstrong (Weidenfeld)
"""