The Tour de France goes straight into the "white wall" of the Sky

Thursday, July 19, Bourg-Saint-Maurice, melted bitumen. The eight riders of Team Sky climb together on the podium of presentation, to receive the trophy of the best team. Each plays his role in a surreal scene, becoming daily on the Tour de France 2018: the public hue, the Team Sky greets, and the speaker boasts "Banana Guadeloupe" sponsor of the ranking. Moments earlier, a senior official of the organization, looking annoyed, dispenses on the steamroller of the team during the second stage of the Alps, the day before, La Rosière direction: "It will end with be annoying for cycling.

Christopher Froome, quadruple winner, is only second in the overall standings at the exit of the Alps. He has, for now, found stronger than him: his teammate Geraint Thomas, winner at La Rosière and Alpe-d'Huez. Appreciated in Britain, unknown elsewhere, the Welsh 32, accumulates 1 minute and 39 seconds ahead of the overall standings. He still claims that he is not the best place to win the Tour de France. Not many people believe him. The Pyrenees will judge

Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) seems the last to challenge the final victory to the British. Dumoulin: a slim, affable, fair running Dutchman; a Froome that would be elegant. Its sports director, Luke Roberts, thought to detect "a weakness" at Sky. We have been pinched: for two days as for three years, the white jerseys make up, at the foot of the last pbad of the stage, a third of the leading pack of twenty riders.

A proven scenario [19659008] The stages follow a proven scenario: all day, the six teammates of Froome and Thomas impose a methodical rhythm that annihilates any threatening offensive. In the last pbad, one last accelerates and then leaves the two men in the company of opponents who count themselves on the fingers of one hand. On Wednesday, leaders set to reach the podium of the Tour – Adam Yates, Jakob Fuglsang, Ilnur Zakarin – jumped like popcorn on a long relay of the Pole Michal Kwiatkowski, number four in the internal hierarchy of Sky. The next day, Egan Bernal, a 21-year-old Colombian climber, ridiculed the offensive attempts of Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Romain Bardet. Asphyxiated, the daring seemed to struggle at the end of a leash of less than 100 meters and were eventually returned to the niche. Only the bravery of the French, who insisted again and again, managed to make the climb thrilling.

Since Geraint Thomas took the yellow jersey, Wednesday, July 18, boos returned to the Tour

Since Geraint Thomas took the yellow jersey on Wednesday, July 18, the boos came back on the Tour. They had left him at the end of the Vendee, where the public reserved them at Froome. The suspicion of the French public vis-à-vis Sky does not date the abnormal doping control of the latter, in September 2017, which was finally cleared five days before the start of the Tour de France. It has been growing since its first victory, Bradley Wiggins before Christopher Froome, in 2012. What is striking is how much the two ended up accommodating this disenchantment. It is badumed that the Sky will not pretend to suffer to make interest in the Tour. And it is certain that some of the public will hate her for that. "If people do not like Sky and want to whistle, I'm fine, but let us run " said Geraint Thomas at Alpe-d'Huez. Do not touch the runners, do not spit on us. A little decency. Express your opinions, but let us run.

Reforms envisaged by the UCI

The climb to the mythical station is still what comes closest to a football stadium, but never the audience of the Tour had adopted the the most execrable rites: insults, spittle it seems, shot, even, given by a man in green shorts to Christopher Froome. Another visual observation: the ranks of the spectators were surprisingly sparse along 21 laces, and the organization of this stage queen of the Alps on a Thursday does not explain everything. The trend is heavy: all over Europe, audiences of the Tour have been bad until Roubaix, partly because of competition from the World Cup football. The end of the World Cup does not indicate any particular improvement: the first big mountain stage, Wednesday on France 2, attracted only 3.9 million viewers, against an average of 4.5 million for the uneven stages of the event. last year

The Deserted Tour? "Normal" has fun Cyrille Guimard. Whistles? "Normal too. The coach of the French team of road cycling, seven Tours de France won as sports director (from 1976 to 1984), asks a thousand questions by commenting the race on RMC. The main one: how long will cycling survive the supremacy of the Sky, reminiscent of Lance Armstrong's US Postal? "There is obviously a problem. Independently of all other considerations [sur un éventuel dopage chez Sky] it is difficult to stand in front of the white wall, in front of his television set, for five hours, knowing what will happen on arrival. We must rethink cycling because we go into the wall. We are already there, by the way. (…) More than the spectator, it is the runner who must get bored! I imagine in 10 ^e or 15 ^e position of the yellow jersey group, behind the white wall. I say to myself, "What are we doing here?" "

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Individually, the leaders of the Sky no longer produce the same staggering performance as in the past, but the collective grip is still strong. She was not affected by the change from nine to eight in the number of riders per team. Ideally, the Tour would have reduced it to seven, and to the International Cycling Union (UCI), some would not be against it. The plan to limit the wage bill is also in the cards of the international federation, which would like to prevent the formation of overpowering teams. It will be hard to get big teams to accept, even more complicated to apply. We also talk about the ban on earpieces or power sensors, thanks to which the Sky team can apply its millimeter stroke. The UCI President, the Frenchman David Lappartient admits him in private: before the Tour, he too is bored