Chris Froome and Richie Porte have revealed how they have been abused by fans at the roadside of the Tour de France this year.
“They threw it into my face and said dopé, like that,” Froome told ITV after stage 14, the day the incident occurred.
"It’s extremely wrong and on so many different levels, and I’m extremely disappointed about that. It’s not in the name of sport."
However, Froome acknowledged it was just a few select fans giving the sport a bad name, and that on the whole man y have cheered him on in the Yellow Jersey.
"Having said that we’ve had fantastic support. We’ve had a great number of fans out on the road and I want to thank them and the media, a lot of them have been fantastic around this race, in just wanting to talk about the race. That’s what people want to see. Unfortunately some people ruin it for everyone else."
On stage ten, teammate Richie Porte finished second to Froome and he says he was punched by a fan that day.
“I was (punched) in the last 3km. I got a full-on punch,” said Porte.
“They are so anti-whatever we are. Do I deserve to be booed? Does Chris Froome deserve all this? I don’t think so.”
“Maybe in 10 years’ time they’re going to see that these victories are legitimate. It’s a disgrace how some of these people carry on.”
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