The struggle is real, says Bauer
While the powerful Sky team prepared to defend its Tour de France lead ahead of the upcoming crucial phase through the Pyrenees – and itself from a French public that it sees as hostile – New Zealand cyclist Jack Bauer was just focused on trying to make it through the race.
The British team of Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome looked ahead to a three-day onslaught through the Pyrenees on rest day, where they expected attacks from not only their rivals, but also anti-Sky spectators who have so far thrown liquid at, spat at and punched them.
Meanwhile, Bauer was resting up as best he could to finish the remaining stages inside the time limit, and ultimately reach the Tour finish line in Paris.
So far, Bauer has found his fifth start in the Tour his hardest. Something to be gained by him being near the rear of the pack in the mountains – or off the back – is that it at least keeps him out of the firing line of verbal and physical abuse of Sky riders.
For Bauer, who rides for the Australian Mitchelton-Scott team, yesterday’srest day could not have come sooner after racing in the Alps for three days, then across France to the Pyrenees.
‘‘I have not struggled in a Tour this much since probably my debut in 2013,’’ he said. ‘‘Those three Alpine [last week] days go down [as] my worst ever.’’
Bauer’s story is shared by a number of exhausted riders this late into the Tour, but lost in the narrative of Thomas’ bid for glory and those who threaten it.
Before today’s 16th stage from Carcassonne to Bagneres-deLuchon in the Pyrenees, Thomas led overall, by 1min 39sec on Froome who was second, 1min 50sec on Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) who was third, and then 2min 38sec on Slovenian Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) in fourth.
Adding weight to speculation over how Thomas and Froome will race has been the abuse of the Sky team by roadside spectators, leading team manager David Brailsford to blame the French.
‘‘I don’t think it is going to stop,’’ Brailsford said. ‘‘I’m not too optimistic on that front. We accept it and have to make a decision about how to behave.
‘‘We’re trying to remain dignified. We’re trying not to react and not to get distracted by it.’’
Doubt, even protest, over Sky’s handling of issues is understandable;
themost recent being Froome’s salbutamol case for which the World Anti Doping Agency cleared him before the Tour. But that Sky have faced physical abuse from spectators in past Tours – and continue to do so in this year’s race – is appalling.
Notwithstanding, the team’s image at the Tour has not been helped by the antics of some of their own, such as the reaction of the Welsh rider Luke Rowe to rip an anti-Sky placard out of the
hands of a spectator before the start of stage five – later denying it was him when asked, then admitting it was and apologising.
After stage 15 Italian teammate Gianni Moscon was booted out for striking Frenchman Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Samsic) and yesterday, Brailsford did not do his team any favours by labelling French culture as the catalyst for hostility towards his team.
He may well have antagonised those behind such antics.