Tour de 'Sporting' France . .

[Roger]

Come on Mr 'Fixit' Macron :-

''Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford believes the spitting, booing and physical intimidation to which his riders have been subjected at this Tour de France is a phenomenon particular to “French culture”, adding that unless French fans start to “respect top international teams” they may find they do not come any more.

Speaking on the Tour’s final rest day on Monday ahead of the first of five Pyrenean stages which will decide the race, Brailsford said the treatment being meted out to his team was unacceptable. “I don’t think it’s going to stop,” he said. “I’m not too optimistic on that front. We’re trying to remain dignified, we’re trying not to react and we’re trying not to get distracted by it. But I don’t think spitting and throwing things has a place in professional sport''''.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2018/07/23/sir-dave-brailsford-claims-spitting-booing-team-sky-french-thing/

[Coolkorat]

It will be worse in the mountains: the crowd is probably closer than any other sport. Frankly it's disgusting. They should arrest and fine a few of them.

[Roger]

Shocking - imagine the consequences if this was happening in another sport - say Football.

''Geraint Thomas has implored fans not to ruin his chances of claiming a first yellow jersey, saying he could “quite easily” have crashed when a spectator grabbed at his arm as he neared the finish of Wednesday’s stage. The Welsh rider, 32, had just dropped his general classification rivals on the final summit finish of the race and was on the point of extending his advantage out to nearly two minutes over his nearest rival, Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin, when a fan wearing a replica AG2R jersey leaned over the barriers and tried to pull his arm off his handlebars. Thomas turned around to stare at the fan, but he admitted yesterday that he wasn’t sure what had just happened.

“There was no time for fear to be honest,” Thomas said after finishing safely in the bunch on stage 17 to Pau. “I didn’t really know what had happened. I thought it was maybe an accident, just an over-exuberant fan. But when we got back to the hotel Wout [Poels, Thomas’s Sky team mate] showed me the pictures and it was obviously something else. “It’s not nice. It’s not what you want. We came here to just race our bikes – the whole peloton did –and you don’t people trying to affect the race like that because I could have quit easily crashed.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2018/07/26/geraint-thomas-pleads-fans-near-crash-tour-win-hangs-balance/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget

[Roger]

Well done Geraint Thomas AND Chris Froome in 3rd 

Thomas says : “It’s just been one thing after the next. Maybe when I get home tomorrow, shut the front door and sit on the sofa, it will start to sink in. I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to experience it to know what it’s really going to be like. But I don’t mind. I’m generally a pretty relaxed guy. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully I can just go with the flow.”

Thomas is about to sign a £3.5 million p.a. contract with Sky - now, I must dust off my old bike

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2018/07/31/geraint-thomas-celebrated-tour-victory-party-bus-messages-arsenal/

[Robert]

Sorry Roger but then well done Tom Dumoulin in second  . Sky had the better overall team (unfortunately for Tom).

[Roger]

Robert - agreed - accolades to Dumoulin too !!

Let's hope the Authorities can sort out the abuse problem next year. ATB