Sir Dave Brailsford has said that abusive behaviour against Team Sky’s riders by spectators at the Tour de France is reflective of “a French cultural thing” and has called for fans to show “a little more respect” – although his words could well have the opposite effect.
The Team Sky principal was speaking in Carcassonne on yesterday’s second rest day ahead of racing resuming today with a 218-kilometre stage that heads into the High Pyrenees and with Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome occupying the top two positions overall.
His comments come during a race in which Team Sky riders, and Chris Froome in particular, have often been booed and spat at and had liquids, including urine, thrown at them. Froome himself was pushed by a spectator on the Alpe d’Huez last week.
While the team has been subject to similar treatment by a small minority of spectators in previous years, the long-running salbutamol case involving Chris Froome, exonerated the Monday before the race began, appears to have resulted in more hostility this time round.
He said: “I don’t think it’s going to stop, I’m not too optimistic on that front. It’s challenging, we accept it, we just have to make a decision as to how to behave. We’re trying not to react. We have a mindset where we don’t get distracted by it.
“I don’t think spitting has a place in professional sport personally, or in everyday life, but it seems to be the thing that’s done here,” he continued.
“But we’re not going to let it distract us. It’s interesting, we just raced in Italy and if this is all about Chris and his case, well his case was open during the Tour of Italy and they were fantastic, the Italians. The Spanish, fantastic.
“It just seems to be a French thing,” Brailsford claimed. “A French cultural thing really, that’s it.”
He revealed that hostility against Team Sky extended beyond the riders and also saw team staff targeted.
Referring to the recent FIFA World Cup which France won, he continued: “I’m not sure they would have liked their football players to be spat at in Russia, but it’s okay to spit on us and our staff.
“I’ve got young staff, our mechanic is 21, she’s a young girl trying to drive round France and it’s intimidating for her, very, very intimidating, and to be spat at – personally I’d have a bit of an issue if it was going on in my country but there we go. We just carry on.”
He called on spectators to treat riders “with respect” or risk the prospect of teams deciding not to ride the race altogether, saying: “The Tour is promoted as the world’s greatest annual international sporting event and if that’s what you want to host and if you want the best riders in the world to come to your country to take part, then maybe treat them with a little more respect.
“If you don’t want them to come then maybe race only with French teams, that might work, but if you want them to come then treat them with the same respect that you’d want your national team to be treated with when they go to Russia or wherever else. That’s the way I see it.
“We’ve had it for years,” Brailsford added. “This isn’t something new. Part of winning the Tour de France for us is to come and try and win it again having won it for a long time.
“We know we’re going to get stick, we’ve been here before, we’re experienced at it, we carry on with a smile and just try to win the race.”
11 thoughts on “Sir Dave Brailsford says abuse by spectators is “a French cultural thing””
Even the gendarmerie are
Even the gendarmerie are getting in on the act, attacking the peloton with pepper spray!
a French cultural thing
Sir Brailsford’s prejudices are transpiring, just a little bit
jfparis wrote:
Sir Brailsford’s prejudices are transpiring, just a little bit
Well it appears to be a cultural thing that’s happening in France… what else do you suggest he calls it?
alansmurphy wrote:
Based on a few observations, Sir Brailsford draws conclusion on the country “French Cultural Thing”. One can follow the same though process with their own little pet peeve. This is called prejudice
jfparis wrote:
No, it’s called rationale. So far the French fans are quacking like ducks and swimming in the water, so I think calling them ducks is ok.
Did UK football have a hooligan problem at one point? Yes.
Was a cultural thing? Yes.
Same deal here. Cycling hooligans.
Brailsford comments of late
Brailsford comments of late have caused a ‘soundbite’ frenzy in the press.. however I appear to agree with him.
David Lappartient has acted small mindedly through the whole process of ‘inhaler-gate’, the UCI, under Lappartient leaked the bloody mess in the beginning and he is wholly deserving of the derogatory ‘local French mayor kind of mentality’ moniker.. the French seem to are their worst enemy at the moment, with Hinaut, throwing liquid at the peloton, spitting at Sky staff, the annual farmer protests… stereotypes abound! I love so much about France but the French people can be really annoying at times.
JF, you are drawing a
JF, you are drawing a conclusion that fits your rhetoric. He may well have deliberately stereotyped the French as a whole, alternatively he may have been saying it as he sees it, a cultural thing that is pertinent to French fans at TDF.
Let’s face it, Sky have had it for years. There are many that call their approach robotic, many who don’t like British winners, many who want a French winner, many who think Lance’s tarnishing of their national event is a disgrace, many who don’t think Hinault was a cheat or Bardet is massively flawed. They (as in the aforementioned) want a French winner, they feel it is acceptable to spit, throw urine and physically assault professional athletes. They are wrong!
alansmurphy wrote:
I am from the alps (the flatier part) Saw TDF so many time over the years. You spend most of your day waiting in the sun arguing who’s gonna win with the guy next to you. One thing is sure “they are wong” only you know best. At some point a few goodies are thrown at you by the carravane. Time to wake up. Then you see the bunch passing so fast in front of you that the only thing you have time to scream is “Allez ! Allez Allez”. Then it’s gone. You are free to support whoever you like you would be very lucky to see them at all. That’s the spirit of it.
Roads are not covered with nails. Spits and buckets of urine are not flying accross the roads. There are no line-up of kamikazes trying to rugby tackle riders off their bikes.
There are a few idiots like in every gathering. And they will do silly shit such as breaking a shop window, jumping on an ambulance. In TDF they can get very close and they have spent a day drinking god knows what in the sun – hence the danger.
My rhetoric is that people who draws conclusions based on a few observations are giving in to their prejudices. Works for Sir Dave in this occasion. Works for whoever will go around at the pub with “all cyclists jump red light” or any other more disgraceful topic
jfparis wrote:
You are probably right that this is about a very small minority but the comments by Lapartient and Hinault, which were totally out of order, encourage these idiots. Lapartient and Hinault have only thrown fuel on the fire. Hinault was my hero, and I still admire they way he rode, but as someone who is seen as an ambasador of the sport his behaviour was awful. As for Lapartient, as president of the UCI he should take responsability for the leak that led to the controversy about Froome’s AAF, and he should have been defending the UCI’s rules which state that a rider should be allowed to continue to race whilst and AAF is investigated. He is a disgrace and should resign.
iandusud wrote:
Very important that one hears confitmation of their bias. In that business there are professional shit stirer (with some medias definitely playing thtat line), on-the-decline attention seekers that can’t resist giving quote to the professional shit stirers and officials that can’t resist talking even when hey shouldn’t.
Pattern above apply to every single topic
There are many non-French
There are many non-French people who call Sky’s approach robotic, who don’t like cheats winning, who want a French winner, who think that Armstrong’s tarnishing of our sport is a disgrace etc. It’s not a *French* thing.