Tour trouble flares again as Pete wins

APPEALS for calm among Tour de France spectators appeared to fall on deaf ears as a lit flare was tossed into the peloton before world champion Peter Sagan claimed his third stage victory of the race in Valence.

Twenty-four hours after fourtime winner Chris Froome was slapped and apparently spat at by elements within the massed crowds on Alpe d’Huez, there was fresh trouble when a spectator threw the flare around 16 and a half kilometres before the finish of the 169.5km stage from Bourg d’Oisans.

Spewing yellow smoke, the flare appeared to be thrown over Team Sky’s riders, massed on the right side of the peloton around Geraint Thomas in the yellow jersey, before bouncing across the road without bringing down anyone.

“I didn’t actually notice it,” Thomas said. “Sixteen kilometres to go, did you say? I was fully in the zone fighting for position. It was pretty stressful so I had no idea.”

The incident came only hours after Tour director Christian Prudhomme called for calm at the roadside after events spilled over on the Alpe d’Huez on Thursday.

Froome was slapped by at least one fan and appeared to be spat at by another, before Vincenzo Nibali crashed after touching a spectator, fracturing a vertebrae to put him out of the race.

“We need to restore calm and respect all the riders,” Prudhomme said. “The riders on the Tour, and champions of the Tour, must obviously be respected, as they are by the large majority of the public.

“It was very calm for 10 days, with only a few anti-Froome or anti-Sky placards. But at a stroke, it all went up again.

“I can only renew my appeals for calm, for common sense, with regards to the riders.”

For a third straight day, Thomas heard some boos as he appeared on the podium to collect his yellow jersey.

Asked why, he said: “I think that’s a question for the people out there. I don’t know. We just train hard, work hard and come here to try to win the race.”

The day’s stage came down to a sprint, and Sagan picked up his third stage win of this Tour as he overhauled Alexander Kristoff and Arnaud Demare in the final few metres to win by a wheel length.