Briton Froome said he felt the animosity from certain quarters and has blamed some journalists for inciting spectators against him and his team.
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“This isn’t the wild west that it was 10 or 15 years ago”, he said. It was the other way around 10 or 15 years ago. If you have reason to believe that any written material or image has been innocently infringed, please bring it to the immediate attention of CDN via the e-mail address or phone number listed on the Contact page so that it can be resolved expeditiously. “As I said yesterday, it was particular individuals”, Froome said.
The Kenya-born rider, who won the 2013 Tour, said on Tuesday he is racing clean but understood questions because of the history of the sport. “I’m not going to give up the race because a few guys are shouting insults”.
The pair hardly went head-to-head on Sunday as Cavendish – who is reportedly unwell – had been left behind on the climb out of Mende at the start of the day and rolled home in a group of 23 riders more than 14 minutes behind the victor.
German sprinter Andre Greipel tweeted a picture of himself following Wednesday’s stage showing his salt-stained shorts from the amount of sweat he’d lost.
LIFE was easier on the road for Chris Froome in yesterday’s 15th stage of the Tour de France but off the road was a different matter.
Noisy, hot and no AC: Could a lack of air-conditioning at a hotel where Mark Cavendish’s Etixx-Quick Step team slept last night be partly to blame for his lackluster performance in Sunday’s Stage 15? “You didn’t see any reports about suspicious performances in this year’s Tour de France?”
Froome said: “I’m not afraid”. “After about 30 kilometers (18 miles) we knew it was about surviving the day”.
“I don’t think that it’s freakish to have police around in the morning as we’re warming up or leaving buses”.
British riders held sway a day earlier with Froome extending his overall lead and Stephen Cummings of the QTN-Qhubeka team winning the stage by overtaking two French breakaway riders in the final seconds. With two moderate climbs followed by a downhill finish, it should suit punchy riders lower down in the overall standings who are looking for a stage win before the podium challengers do battle in the really big mountains.
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Froome was adamant he would not abandon for reasons of safety, answering curtly “no”, when asked if he had considered it. Historically there is only one precedent for riders doing so, and it is a distant one too: in 1950, Italy’s double Tour victor Gino Bartali quit – and both Italian teams went as well – after he alleged a French fan had punched him and waved a knife in his face.
