I’M READY FOR ALL THEY THROW AT ME
After ‘idiot’ tries to drag him off his bike, leader Thomas says... MATT LAWTON
THE situation has been worse. Back in 2004 threats to Lance Armstrong’s life were considered credible enough to have snipers in the car following the American on his timed ascent of Alpe d’Huez.
But as this Tour de France rolls into its final mountain stage, security fears remain significant, with Geraint Thomas urging the troublemakers to stay away today after one spectator so nearly caused him to fall on that dramatic climb up the Col du Portet on Wednesday. The Welshman said he certainly won’t be riding so close to the barriers again.
On a day when Chris Froome reflected on an incident that did cause him to crash — alongside a rather menacing bodyguard, who was also knocked off his bike when a gendarme mistook them for members of the public — the race leader called for calm.
Thomas has encountered nothing like the hostility endured by Froome here in France but the last thing he wants is another spectator trying to disrupt his race when he needs to focus on his rivals on a stage that will take in climbs as punishing as the Tourmalet and Col d’Aubisque.
As Armstrong suggested on his podcast, one last 124-mile battle over the peaks of the Pyrenees could yet prove pivotal if Thomas, so impressive until now, shows any signs of weakness.
But Thomas remains wary of the threat that comes from the spectators who are taking the ill-feeling being shown towards the all-conquering British team way too far.
A so-called cycling fan did lunge at Thomas as he entered the final few hundred metres of Wednesday’s stage and the 32-year-old hoping to become the third Briton in seven years to win cycling’s biggest prize was clearly alarmed by the incident.
‘Obviously it wasn’t nice,’ he said. ‘We come here to race our bikes and that’s all we want to do. The peloton just wants to do that safely. It’s a bit too much.’
Asked what message he had for such spectators, he responded: ‘Just stay at home. Don’t come out and try to affect the race like that. I could have quite easily fallen and lost a bit of time.
‘When it happened I thought it might just have been an accident but then I saw some of the pictures. Obviously it’s not good and I won’t be riding quite so close to the barriers this time.
‘Apparently he was doing the same to (Nairo) Quintana. It was just too much to drink, a bit of an idiot.’
Today, Thomas acknowledged, represents a major test.
‘We’re expecting the worst and hoping for the best,’ the Sky rider said. ‘We’ll be expecting a lot of attacks, maybe from the gun, maybe halfway up the Tourmalet. But we’ve been riding really well as a team and to have someone like Froomey at my disposal, so to speak, is a really phenomenal asset.
‘It’s a big day tomorrow but obviously we then have the time trial on Saturday, so there is a lot more to go.’
Yesterday’s stage was won in the sprint by France’s Arnaud Demare, with Ireland’s Dan Martin finishing safely in the bunch to sit in ninth place overall.
‘I didn’t battle all this time for nothing, I didn’t give up in the mountains,’ said Demare, who had been accused of holding on to a car to make it through the challenging mountain stages by Germany’s Andre Greipel, who abandoned the Tour on stage 12.
‘I was thinking about Greipel,’ he said. ‘It’s true I’m not the best rider in the mountains, but I’ve worked a lot to improve my climbing, so the best answer I could give to André Greipel was to win today.’
Before Thomas and Froome navigated their way safely into Pau, the defending Tour champion reflected on his own problems on his descent of the Col du Portet with his bodyguard and a police officer.
Videos posted on social media appeared to show Froome responding to the French police officer with an expletive-filled outburst. Yesterday Froome was calmer. ‘I was the first rider to come down the descent and one of the gendarmes grabbed my arm as I was passing,’ Froome said.
‘Obviously he thought I was a spectator going down the race route or something. I was going at some speed so I came off obviously, but it was just a misunderstanding.’
Asked about the swearing, Sky team principal Dave Brailsford was sympathetic.
‘Every fair-minded person would agree that your first reaction is going to be an emotional one,’ he said. You should never be judged on that,’ he said.