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Reuters/Mende, France
Tour de France leader Chris Froome, who has been dealing with doping suspicions since hammering his rivals in the first mountain stage, hit out at “irresponsible reporting” after having a cup of urine thrown at him while riding yesterday.
This followed fellow Team Sky rider, Australian Richie Porte, saying he had been punched by a spectator during Tuesday’s 10th stage. “Unfortunately there was a bit of a dampener on the stage. A spectator, about 50-60km into the stage threw a cup of urine at me, shouting ‘doper’,” Froome told a news conference after he gained some more time on his rivals in the 14th stage yesterday.
“That’s unacceptable on so many different levels. We’re professionals. I think I said I would not blame the public for this, it really is a minority of the people out there, but I would blame some of the reporting on the race that has been very irresponsible. Those individuals know who they are, it’s not all the media... there has been a lot of irresponsible reporting out there that’s unacceptable.”
Doping suspicions have been aired after Froome humiliated his main rivals in the first Pyrenean stage, with French TV pundits Laurent Jalabert, a former Vuelta winner, saying the Briton’s performance had made him feel uneasy. “They set the tone and people believe what they see in the media,” said Froome.
Asked if he was scared by the incident and feared there could be more to come, Froome said: “I’m not scared about this, I just hope it does not interfere with the race.”
It was otherwise a good day for Froome as he controlled his rivals in the finale climb of the 198.5km stage from Rodez that was won by fellow Briton Stephen Cummings for South Africa’s MTN-Qhubeka team.
Colombian Nairo Quintana attacked repeatedly but Froome was confident he would bring him back in due time and looked comfortable all day. “The attacks started pretty quickly in the climb. Quintana was very strong out there. I was happy to ride my own tempo knowing I could bring him back,” he said.
Froome gained a second on Quintana, who is now second overall after American Tejay van Garderen cracked on the climb and dropped down to third. “I have to say that Nairo seems to be the biggest threat to me at this stage, he was really strong up on the climb today,” said Froome.
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