The Tour de France is a prime example of this. Riders drink from bottles and then just throw them away at the side of the road, or they eat an energy bar or cereal bar and again simply discard the rubbish. In theory, in the Tour, there is a team of sweepers following the race who pick up all this litter. But on steep mountain passes, the bottles and wrappers that go over the edge just tumble down into the valley below, where they are not recovered by the race. They lie festering and polluting the landscape until discovered by someone out for a walk—ruining their outing as well as damaging nature.

This also happens in ski mountaineering competitions, where competitors throw their wrappers away on high mountain ridgelines.

Added to this, young, impressionable racers watching their heroes are being taught these bad habits.

This practice is disgusting and should be stopped. The authorities should make it an offence punishable by a time penalty significant enough to discourage it. Speak to people you know who run clubs or manage sports, and start suggesting that this behaviour is controlled—and, hopefully, stopped completely.