Top riders risk missing Liège-Bastogne-Liège after environmental groups' litter complaints

Concerned about littering? It's a crime in most, if not all, countries. I invite one and all to check out www.litterpreventionprogram.com and our News Reel that is updated daily. This is a website dedicated to the topics of litter and littering. Our goal is to lower the number of people who litter whether in cars, on foot, on bicycles, be it elite racing or just riding around the neighbourhood. Athletes are role models. They need to be mindful of their practices. In the Philippines last year, the winning rider was disqualified for littering during the race. Get all the news from around the world and sign up for our free newsletter - "This Week In Litterland".
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I seem to remember a couple of years ago in the TDF seeing a 'zone' where bidons could be disposed of but not outside. I think it was in a National Park or in the French version of a Area of Outstanding Beauty.
Is it too much to ask to have a zone every 20k or so where riders can dump all their stuff?

I am happy to see this. As others have said I am more OK with bidons because they will be picked up by fans, but gel wrappers and the like should be disposed of properly.
For those saying that the riders will not have the same impact as the crowds, try riding the route of a race a few hours or even a day after the peleton passes by. You will be able to follow the route just by following the gel wrappers, and in a lot of places it is obvious that there has been much greater impact from the riders than the crowds. I say it doesn't slow you down much to put that gel wrapper back in your pocket rather than just chucking it into some pristine wilderness...

Its easy when you stop at the boulangrie for your morning pastry just ask for it not to be wrapped then its just licking the crumbs and custard off your fingers when you have finished!!

Sorry not taking this seiously and I should littering is rearing it ugly head here in France (mostly beer tins and Mac D wrappers)

this is good, they should be banned for littering imo, theres no need for it.

Great to see Agenda 21 going strong.

Tom Steels. There was a bidon chucker with attitude.

Although I agree that as members of the public we have a responsibility to keep the countryside we use clean, in a professional race the emphasis should rest largely with the organisers. Surely the amount of tat thrown from the caravan before the Tour must swamp any of the nutritional detritus that gets thrown by the 200 blokes peddling behind.

Why are just the top 30 involved? Coalition Nature are clearly just aiming for their 15 minutes of fame at the only time of year when anyone really cares about that bit of Belgium.

disclaimer: I've never been to Wallonia, and it's probably lovely. I'm just making a point.

I'm a saint

I got so tired of a lane near us being covered on litter - with residents ignoring it and dog walkers stepping over it - that two weeks ago I went and cleared it all up. It took my 3 hours and I collected 5 bags of rubbish and a bag of recyclable Cans and bottles. I also found a set of number plates and some surgical gloves so it's obviously a gangster paradise...Very satisfying - both as an activity and the self-righteousness it gave me.

Watching Triento stage 3 you see riders share a mini coke and then chuck the can away. Not good.

There are enough tossers in cars without adding tossers on bikes as well.

1st April? No, 19th April!

Whether they like it or not - pro riders are role models and should be seen to set an example.
It is arrogant and lazy the way they discard of stuff - as though it is their right to do so just because they are competing.
One of the joys of pro cycling is that it occurs on public roads. They should respect that fact - that they are *public* and not just their domain to do how they please.
Social norms (and litter laws) should be applied to pro cyclists as much as anyone else.
In my opinion.

Littering is disgraceful who ever does it, period.

It would be easy for riders to put gel wrappers in their back pockets. A tad more interesting to have domestiques collecting empties.

I'm sure the amount of rubbish left by the riders compared to the amount left by the spectators is very small.

Would it not be better for the environmental groups to be focusing their efforts in getting the fans to take their waste away with them (plus that of any passing cyclist) ?

' I think one french team introduced a small opening on the back of the jersey for gel wrappers'

Aye, they're called pockets.

Sorry but all this is nonsense. I'll bet that even the well behaved and ecofriendly continental crowds leave much more lying around than the cyclists chuck away. Organisers can sweep up when the peloton has passed by as they would for say a marathon - or maybe you want marathon runners to carry their rubbish from the drink and feed stations to the finish line.

Are you telling my 20 select riders cause more litter than the thousands of fans on the roadside watching the race?

Bidons is neither her nor there for me, empty ones at the time of a new pick up from the team car could be given back (also reducing the costs to the teams) or they will be picked up by fans. I know I got several in the mid 90's at the Leeds International Classic's!

General rubbish though could just be put back in jersey pockets, and passed to the team car at certain points, or as it seems to suggest, dropped during a specified area (hope its a good 5km from a feed station) with PSO staff allocated to clear up.

They seem to forget though, that the PSO are the race organiser, so surely the responsibility of the impact of the race lies with them? They make the money from the race by the teams being there, surely they should have cleaners to deal with it?

…… had powered away from his fellow escapees as he crested the final climb, and upon entering the final 2k had a seemingly unassailable 40 second lead. However he hadn’t anticipated being stopped by a police officer with 250 metres to go and being made to pedal back down the course to put a carelessly discarded gel wrapper in the bin. He would eventually finish just off the podium in 4th.

The ASO has said the authorities won't stop anyone racing. It'd kill world tour races in Belgium if they did

Take the Cipo approach to disposal and launch them at Motorbike riders

Sorry, but why doesn't the organiser just follow the peloton with a person to pick up the discarded ones? This is an extreme sporting event, not a sportive. The riders are refuelling and if they run out of places to put empty bottles, it's going to slow them down, surely? The roads are closed, signage everywhere, thousands of spectators, why the upset over a few bottles that can be easily picked up (if fans don't do so anyway)?

Bidons I don't have an issue with as they collected by fans as a momento of the day. Gel wrappers though, grrrrr.

Good, why should they be allowed to throw stuff away, they collect them from cars, well take them back to the cars, or dispose in the allocated area, otherwise its littering.