SKY BOSS DAVE NOT A FAN OF DARK ROADSIDE PANTO HUMOUR
SIR DAVE BRAILSFORD warned the Tour de France “pantomime” had a dark side after Luke Rowe threw a banner in the works.
Team Sky road captain Rowe snatched a fan’s placard reading ‘Sky Go Home’ in the paddock before the 127-mile trawl through Brittany from Lorient to Quimper – and threw it in the bin.
Rowe said it was a light-hearted gesture, although local fan Didier Bregardes complained the Welsh rider had “grabbed” his A4-sized sign and “threw it down”.
After an impressive showing from Chris Froome and his team, which left both the defending champ and Geraint Thomas within a minute of the overall lead, Rowe (above) admitted: “The sign was laminated, so in keeping with our #PassOnPlastic hashtag I threw it in the recycling bin.” But there is a growing sense that Team Sky have had enough of roadside protests at Froome’s acquittal of any wrongdoing in his salbutamol case. And principal Brailsford said: “To a large extent it feels like a pantomime, but as the guy responsible for all the riders and staff I must take it very seriously. Does this pantomime have a darker side? That’s a fair comment as a lot of people chuckle and join in, but there are definitely people for whom this is not pantomime in the humorous context.”
Peter Sagan won his second stage of this year’s race, while Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet remains in the leader’s Yellow Jersey.