Froome wants Tour to smoke out idiots and protect riders

CHRIS FROOME called on Tour de France organisers to give riders more protection – on the day a yellow smoke bomb was tossed into the peloton.

After the unruly chaos of the Alpe d’Huez, where Froome was cuffed and pushed, Le Tour’s four-time champion and current leader Geraint Thomas stayed top of the leaderboard following a more orderly stage 13.

But around 10 miles from the end of a 103-mile ride from Bourg d’Oisans to Valence, on a largely unpopulated stretch of road, one cretinous spectator lobbed a flare belching yellow smoke into the main bunch.

If it was for the attention of Team Sky, it landed behind their group on the road – and Thomas, in the Yellow Jersey for a third BY MIKE WALTERS night, admitted he did not notice it.

But Froome, who has borne the brunt of anti-Team Sky sentiment after Chris Froome was slapped and apparently spat at on Thursday, warned security needed reinforcing as he relived madcap scenes on the 21 hairpin bends of Alpe d’Huez.

Former champ Vincenzo Nibali was forced to abandon the race, fracturing a vertebrae after crashing on an overcrowded stretch, garnished with more stupid flares, on Thursday night.

Froome said: “During the race, it is the responsibility of the organisers to protect the riders.

“What happened on the Alpe d’Huez is not right. Nobody wants to see that. You cannot touch, push or strike the riders. That’s not acceptable.

“I was pushed a few times but thankfully I stayed on my bike and didn’t get knocked off.

“When you’ve got fans interfering with the riders, who are giving everything to try and get up the climb, that’s not a situation anyone wants to see.”

There was a new rope cordon at “Dutch Corner” on bend No.7, heavily populated by fans from Holland, and extra barriers penning spectators by the kerb further down the mountain.

But it was not enough to stop lone-wolf hooligans and race director Christian Prudhomme called for “calm and respect” from fans.

World champion Peter Sagan won his third stage of the Tour, pipping Alexander Kristoff on the line in Valence.

Slovakian Sagan said: “It’s very difficult to control everyone.

“People are everywhere, they want to be close to the riders but an incident like that can take you out.”