Really, was Chris Froome actually serious about his poor sportsmanship claim again Vincenzo Nibali for supposedly attacking while Froome had a small stone lodged in his brake pad?
Hey, Nibali didn’t throw any urine or hack a big wad of spit at the maillot jaune. Sometimes these guys get so bent out of shape about this stuff — flat tire, mechanical, piss break, etc etc. It’s a bike race, fellas.
In any other sport, you’d get a laugh, seriously. It’s getting so bad you can’t put in an attack in a grand tour unless you take a poll of every rider in the front group to first check their tires, brakes, gears, seat, water bottles and food supplies. Is everything ready and comfortable because I was kinda thinking about putting in a serious dig, kinda thinking I’d like to win the stage, maybe the race.
Everybody okay with that?
Can I put in a hard acceleration or should I just wait until everybody is feeling relaxed and ready? Anybody need a kleenex? Can I lube anyone’s chain? You need any snacks, let me know right away, because like I said, I’m pumped to attack here. I’d planned this attack since the recon 3 months ago and this is the exact spot right here. Really like to get to it, if everybody is in agreement.
You have to wonder sometimes.
Froome had something like six or eight minutes on Nibali on GC and he’s ticked off? Like the Italian was a threat to nail back all that time while Froome dug the pebble out of his brake pad.
Apparently, the normally mild-mannered and gentlemanly Froome went a little bonkers in the podium area after the stage, chewing out Nibali and using some language not suitable for the ears of small cycling fans. “I won’t say the words he used because they’ve too harsh and it’s not nice to say them. He was very angry but I don’t know what his problem was. Lots of things happen in a race…” said Nibali.
The Italian went on to explain life in the big city. “Lots of things have happened to me too, but that’s cycling. When Contador crashed on the descent (to Pra-Loup) we didn’t know until three or four kilometers after. It happens a lot of times in races. I can remember when I crashed at the 2010 Giro d’Italia, at Montalcino. There was the incident when Andy Schleck was attacked by Contador at the Tour the other year. There are no rules….”
Written or unwritten, Froome was none to happy. “It was up the Col du Glandon, pretty close to the summit, I suddenly felt like my back wheel locked up, a bit of tar or a small stone had locked itself between my brake caliper and back wheel so I had to stop and take the wheel backwards to get the stone out. Unfortunately that was the moment that Nibali decided to make his move. He did see what he was doing, I’m pretty sure he looked around, saw I was in trouble and attacked. In my opinion you don’t do that to the race leader, it’s not sportsmanlike. He had the whole climb to attack and he waited until I had a mechanical. You certainly wouldn’t find me attacking a race leader like that.” Uhh, yeah, not unless it’s Bradley Wiggins — but that’s an old story by now.
Froome seems pretty 100% sure about his “pretty sure he looked around.” Is he an expert in visual tracking of opposing athletes in middle of contest? No doubt there is an analyst at Sky who could examine the video to determine just what, exactly, Nibali was looking at. Seems like a crazy idea to us and they have the money to throw at the project.
Seems to Twisted Spoke that Froome took out his frustrations with urine and spit and doping allegations and disrespectful media on poor of Nibali. The Shark was just trying to salvage his tour and there was absolutely no danger to Froome’s jersey.
Chill, Froomey, chill.
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