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LUCHON, France – In a Tour de France marked by the danger caused by the spectators, defending champion Chris Froome and several other pilots broke into the police tear gas at the beginning of the special stage. Thursday
. a stop of about 15 minutes, eye drops and water were used to cure several riders including Froome, Geraint Thomas, the current leader of the race and another member of Team Sky, as well as than Peter Sagan, the world champion.
Gas to the long list of indignities endured by runners during the three-week run seems to be unprecedented in the modern Tour. It was provoked by protests from farmers who were trying to block the racetrack with hay bales. Police used tear gas to disperse them for 30 kilometers in an exceptionally long stretch of 218 kilometers through the Pyrenean mountains that included five major climbs.
Demonstrations by farmers and trade unionists frequently blocked or delayed the Tour and other major races. In recent years, efforts have been made in the Pyrenees by sheep breeders irritated by the reintroduction of bears in the mountains. The most famous incident may have occurred in 1984 when Bernard Hinault, five-time winner of the Tour, hit a shipyard worker who was part of a protest against the dismissals that interrupted the Paris-Nice race at the beginning of the season. runners who entered the gas cloud seemed to suffer from all the lingering effects once the race resumed.
But messy road behavior was responsible for the loss last week of Vincenzo Nibali, the 2014 winner and one of the few to defeat Froome. While the colorful smoke of a torch obscured part of the ascent of the Alpine ski resort of Alpe d'Huez, Nibali's handlebars entangled in the webbing from a camera that a spectator stood over a fence and threw it on the sidewalk. As Nibali was coming up and finishing, making about 30 seconds of his time lost, the Italian was diagnosed with a fractured vertebra.
More visible actions were taken by some spectators against Froome and other members of Sky. The status of Froome in sport was not clear after it was tested positive for excessive amounts of medicinal salbutamol asthma during the Vuelta a España in September. He was allowed shortly before the Tour. Neither the International Cycling Union nor the World Anti-Doping Agency has offered much explanation on the decision.
At the bottom, fans who were not happy with this result waved placards demanding that Sky or Froome leave the race. . Froome and Thomas were booed, and Froome said the fans threw him some liquid. At the end, on the Alpe d'Huez podium, several spectators seemed to be taking shots at Froome and at least one man was seen being held by the police afterwards. Some rockets appeared to have been directed to Froome. While the organizers have now banned flares, it is unclear exactly how this will be applied.
In what did not seem to be an effective way to soothe the tension, Dave Brailsford, the head of Team Sky, blasted the French fans.
"We ran to Italy and Chris's case was open when we were at the Tour of Italy, and the Italians were fantastic," Brailsford said at a press conference. "It seems to be a French thing – like a French cultural thing."
Although the Tour has clearly been Sky's main goal since the team's inception, Brailsford has suggested that "it's a French thing." he can not come to the race anymore. Come to your country to take part, so maybe treat them with a little more respect, "he said. If you do not want them to come, then maybe the race with French teams could work. "I said." But if you want them to come, then treat them with the same respect as you would like for your team. "
There is no obvious answer The police officers are stationed at each road crossing along the road every day, and line up the lures as the summits of the climbs.The crowds are salty with plainclothes police, 128 motorcyclists of the Police are on the road every day and 2,290 riot police are stationed out of sight every day.
The crowds, of course, are not the only danger to the runners. Phillipe Gilbert, a Belgian, was recalled Tuesday.After crossing the Pbad Portet d'Aspet at the head of the pack, he locked his rear wheel in its narrow and steep descent, hit a stone wall and disappeared from the view of the television camera
The incident occurred not far from a memorial the place where Fabio Casartelli, an Italian riding of the US Motorola team, died after a similar mishap in 1995.
Follow Ian Austen on Twitter: @ianrausten
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