Chris fumes at ruthless Nibali

THE most difficult day Chris Froome has endured at this year’s Tour de France was clouded in yet more controversy, with the Briton once again at war with Vincenzo Nibali and degraded by yet another spitting incident. The racing was hard enough, Nairo Quintana taking half a minute off the Maillot-Jaune and create a hint of more excitement going into today’s last mountain stage. A lead of 2mins 38secs still looks more than enough for Froome, but it gives his Colombian rival a glimmer of hope on Alpe d’Huez today before the roll into Paris tomorrow. But Froome was more preoccupied last night with other matters. Not least the moment a thuggish spectator lunged towards him to spit in his face. It was a third spitting incident, on top of the punch thrown at Richie Porte and the cup of urine tossed at Froome, that Team Sky have endured. ‘Fortunately for me I didn’t see it,’ said Froome, who also suffered verbal abuse. ‘That is appalling behaviour. We are human beings but we are also sportsmen.’ His anger with rival Nibali was far greater, however. An attack on the Col du Glandon at the precise moment the Sky rider came to a sudden halt with a mechanical problem led to a heated exchange at the finish. Nibali, who won the stage, claimed not to have seen Froome was in trouble, but the sight of him looking back twice before accelerating up the road suggested otherwise. ‘I won’t even tell you the words Froome said to me,’ said Nibali. ‘They’re too harsh to repeat. I don’t deserve the words he said.’ Froome, whose back wheel locked up after a stone became lodged between his brake and the rim, said: ‘I told him exactly what I thought of him. It’s very unsportsmanlike. It was not in the spirit of the Tour.’