Team Sky raise the alarm as Tour de France fans turn violent

Sports director blames French media for whipping up negative sentiment against Chris Froome's team

Sky's Leopold Konig negotiates the crowd on stage ten of the Tour de France

(Image credit: Watson)

It's not just rival teams trying to stop Team Sky winning the Tour de France — punches and Coca-Cola cans have been thrown in their direction too as they try to deliver Chris Froome to a victory in Paris.

Richie Porte, Froome's mountain helper, received a blow to his ribs while racing up the La Pierre-Saint-Martin on Monday. The hit came after he did his turn for Froome, who attacked from 6.4 kilometres out to win the stage.

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Gregor Brown

Gregor Brown is an experienced cycling journalist, based in Florence, Italy. He has covered races all over the world for over a decade - following the Giro, Tour de France, and every major race since 2006. His love of cycling began with freestyle and BMX, before the 1998 Tour de France led him to a deep appreciation of the road racing season.