With a fan in a Team CSC-Saxo Bank replica kit running alongside and urging him on, Carlos Sastre rides to the stage win Wednesday on Alpe d’Huez in the Tour de France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Sastre

Sastre

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Sastre
There’s no other major sport in the world where a fan in a replica uniform can run alongside the day’s best performer on the field of play in any event, let alone in the sports marque showcase.

If you would try to do what the guy in the photo above is doing, say, in the Super Bowl, or World Series, or NBA playoffs, or Stanley Cup Finals, or the World Cup, or Wimbledon, and you’d be tackled by security and arrested. Try it in NASCAR and you’d likely be killed in the process. Golf? Well, the athletes are close enough, but you’d still be tackled and arrested if you ran up to Tiger Woods during a putt at the Masters.

But at the Tour de France, the fans are RIGHT THERE, and best of all, ADMISSION IS FREE!!!

Dutch fans cheer on Rabobank’s Koos Moerenhout of the Netherlands on Wednesday during the climb of Alpe d’Huez at the Tour de France. AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski

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Garmin-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde (center) rides through the spectators on Alpe d’Huez with CSC-Saxo’s Frank Schleck in tow Wednesday in the Tour de France. (AP Photo/Joel Saget, POOL)

VDV

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