Mark Cavendish Sad About Urine Attack on Tour de France: No Big Deal Says Armstrong
Tour de France competitor Mark Cavendish was saddened on Wednesday after being attacked with urine.
Cavendish was nearing the finish of a 33km time trial from Avranches to Mont Saint-Michel on Wednesday when a spectator in the crowd threw urine on him out of a water bottle. A winner of 24 Tour de France stages, friends of the 28-year-old said he was saddened by the attack.
"Mark is sad, he's not upset, just sad. I cannot blame anyone. There are 100,000 or 200,000 people on the road, and one person decided to do this," team manager Patrick Lefevere told reporters. "I regret this, I always felt that cycling fans were gentlemen, enthusiastic people."
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The incident occurred following a Tuesday collision with Dutch rider Tom Veelers during a sprint to the finish line of Stage 10. Veelers was knocked off his bike as a result, but it is unclear whether the urine attack was related to that event. Cavendish apologized on his Twitter account Tuesday although it was later determined that he was not at fault.
Armstrong also responded to news of the urine attack on Twitter stating that it was not as big of a deal as people were making of it.
"Why all the sudden shock and outrage," he wrote. "This has been happening for 100 years in some form or another. piss, spit, fists, etc."
Despite being disappointed over the event, Cavendish suggested in a later interview that being close enough for such an attack to occur has always been part of the game.
"The beauty of cycling is that you can get so close to the spectators," he told the BBC. "It is the Tour de France. Anything can happen. It wasn't nice at the time. The majority of fans are brilliant."
