MORE TROUBLE ON TOUR AS FAN HURLS LIT FLARE AT SKY RIDERS
THE TENSIONS surrounding Team Sky’s continued dominance of the Tour de France increased yesterday after a spectator lobbed a lit flare over them as the race approached the finish. Spewing yellow smoke, the flare appeared to be thrown over Team Sky’s riders, massed on the right-hand side of the peloton around Geraint Thomas in the yellow jersey. The incident came a day after a chaotic finish to the ski station at Alpe d’Huez in which Chris Froome was shoved and spat at by roadside fans and 2014 Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali was knocked off his bike by encroaching fans. The Italian was forced to abandon the race yesterday due to his injuries. Although yesterday’s stage continued into Valence without any further incident, climaxing with Peter Sagan’s third sprint win in the 2018 Tour, the day was dominated by the fall-out from Nibali’s crash and the simmering hostility towards Froome and his team-mates. ‘We need to restore calm and respect all the riders,’ Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said. ‘It was a very annoying climb of the Alpe d’Huez. The riders on the Tour, and champions of the Tour, must be respected, as they are by the large majority of the public.’ ‘It was calm for 10 days,’ the Frenchman said, ‘with only a few anti-Froome or anti-Sky placards, but at a stroke, it went up again.’ Frenchman Romain Bardet, one of the main title contenders who lies fifth overall, said the Tour was a popular event and should remain so. ‘We are very accessible
but people by the side of the road should not ruin it,’ he said.Nibali, winner of the 2014 Tour, crashed after a spectator’s camera strap caught in his handlebars. The Italian was forced to quit the race with fractured vertebrae. Speaking after the finish to stage 13, Thomas said that he hadn’t even seen the rogue flare that rolled menacingly through the main group of riders. ‘I didn’t actually notice it at the time,’ he said. ‘I was totally in the zone then. It was a fast day on fast roads, but I think the whole peloton enjoyed an easier day after the last few days. The boys kept me right up there with Froomey. It was just a case of avoiding mishaps.’ But he struggled to explain the continued booing and jeering towards himself and his team. ‘We train hard, work hard and try to win the race,’ he said. ‘It’s a question for the people at the side of the road. I’d prefer everyone to cheer but I can’t affect that. There’s been booing since the start but I just ignore it. If it’s just booing it’s fine, as long as it doesn’t affect the race.’ But it is Froome, not Thomas, who seems the real target for those who refuse to accept the outcome of his recent salbutamol case, in which he was cleared of any wrongdoing, on the eve of this year’s Tour. ‘During the race, it’s the responsibility of the organisers to protect the riders,’ Froome said. Thomas now faces another test, on the road, with the steep uphill finish to Mende. ‘Tomorrow’s a tough little finish,’ the Welshman said. ‘There won’t be huge gaps, but there could still be gaps for sure. It will be one of those where you grit your teeth and go.’ ‘Tomorrow we will see some good battles between the favourites,’ was Froome’s prediction.