(CNN) -- The Tour de France remains one of the few prestigious events where spectators can almost reach out and touch the riders -- or throw urine on them as Mark Cavendish found out Wednesday.
The British rider, who has been cleared of any wrongdoing following a collision with Tom Veelers just 24 hours before, was the target of angry fans as he rode through the 33 kilometer individual time trial between Avranches and Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy.
Highly fragmented cycling fans spilt over Cavendish - with some unimpressed by his perceived arrogance and a huge ego, while others prefer an insatiable desire to win.
Cavendish refused to talk about the incident after being splashed with urine by angry viewers in the evening he will soon want to forget.
Omega Pharm his teammate Tony Martin won the 11th stage with Chris Froome keeps the yellow jersey, but it was Cavendish who was again in the limelight.
"It is disappointing to hear about one individual like that," Froome told reporters of the incident after extending his lead to three minutes and 25 seconds.
"That's one of the beauties of our sport. Anyone can come and watch at the side of the road and enjoy the excitement and really get close to the top riders in the world.
"Mark is one of the big characters in the sport, and some people love him, some people hate him.
"But to do something disrespectful like that, that's really sad. It ruins the whole atmosphere."
Although it is considered a first-time riders were attacked in such a way that during the Tour, there are other instances where riders have been abused.
In 1975, Eddy Merckx was punched in the kidney in order to claim his sixth Tour victory, while Lance Armstrong was given a bodyguard in 2004 after suffering a death threat.
Cavendish has endured a miserable couple of days, missed winning the 25th stage on Tuesday, while slipping 103 points behind green jersey leader Peter Sagan.
Meanwhile, Omega Pharm team manager Patrick Lefevere revealed that Cavendish feeling 'sad' after the incident.
"I regret this, I always felt that cycling fans were gentlemen, enthusiastic people," he told reporters
"Mark is sad, he's not upset, just sad. I cannot blame anyone, there are 100,000 or 200,000 people on the road, and one person decided to do this."
Martin claimed an expected victory on the road in the time trial after finishing 12 seconds ahead of Froome.
He had won his previous nine time trials in all competitions, finished the course with the third fastest time ever recorded on the Tour.
When Froome appeared to be challenging for victory as the German revealed he began to worry.
"To be honest, I'd almost given up hope of the stage win," he told reporters. "It was starting to look very disappointing when I saw Chris beat my times at the intermediate check.
"I nearly started to cry. I couldn't believe it. I expected that Froome might get to within 30 seconds or something like that but not beating me at the intermediates.
"Now I'm really happy and maybe it's nicer to win this way."
News from: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/10/sport/cycling-cavendish-tour-de-france-urine/index.html?hpt=isp_c1
By: YC
No comments:
Post a Comment