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news
Dave Brailsford faces the press, Paris, October 2012 (copyright Simon MacMichael)UCI chief David Lappartient tells Sir Dave Brailsford: Stop blaming the French
UCI president David Lappartient has told Sir Dave Brailsford to stop blaming the French public for the abuse that Team Sky riders and staff have encountered from some spectators at the Tour de France.
During Monday’s rest day press conference in Carcassonne, Brailsford called on spectators to show respect for team staff and riders and added that he believed it was “a French cultural thing” that didn’t happen at races elsewhere such as the Giro d’Italia or the Vuelta.
> Sir Dave Brailsford says abuse by spectators is “a Freench cultural thing"
Lappartient has already had an angry exchange of words with Brailsford during this year’s race when the Team Sky principal accused him of having a “French mayor” attitude.
> UCI president David Lappartient tells Sir Dave Brailsford to keep his mouth shut after “insult”
Now, he has said that with his latest comments, Brailsford’ is “pouring oil on the fire” by seeking to pin the blame on the French, reports the Guardian.
“He started with the mayors, now he attacks the spectators,” he said. “I would say two things. First, there are not only French spectators, there are spectators of all nationalities at the Tour.
“Second, it is not very healthy for his team to nationalise the debate whereas we are calling on the public to be calm, to ensure that the riders, and especially Chris Froome are respected.”
The UCI president continued: “Pouring oil on the fire is not very good. We must not forget that Team Sky owe their success to what has been done through the Tour de France and France.”
Referring to Brailsford, he said: “He must be frustrated to see that there is not a love for him or his team, however, we must not attack the people of any country.
“We must respect all the spectators, the people who come are people who love cycling.
“When you are the manager of the team, you should try not to insult those who come to see the race,” Lappartient added.
He had kinder words for the two Team Sky riders currently occupying first and second place on the general classification.
“Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome have, for me, the right attitude,” he said. “Chris Froome says he likes France, and that he trains every day in France. He speaks our language, he also knows what the Tour de France brought him.”
He added: “While the riders, like us, try to reduce the pressure, their sports director puts oil on the fire while there is no need to do it. I invite him to pay attention.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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18 comments
Thank God that Cycing will be coming home and staying there after Brexit then, no more having to deal with those pesky French. Or Germans. Or Spaniards. Brailsford can be the Lord of British Cycling, Sky can win everything from the Herne Hill Crit to the ToF and the French will be put back in their box. Who needs the TdF? That'll show 'em.
Yawn!
You do realise there’s no law requiring you to read or comment on this, yes?
'because where there's smoke, there's always fire, right?'
Not always, but nearly always. Certainly always historically in cycling, although I'm sure this is completely different and a unique case in the history of the sport.
An interesting read and you're right, according to the UCI's own rules they shouldn't have leaked.
It doesn't do much for the perceived level of cleanliness of the sport (ha!) though if things are not made public. Get it all out there, no more Armstrong-like hush money to the UCI, or weaseling out of tests, tennis or football-stylee.
Remember, AAF is not the same as an ADRV, no matter how much nudge nudge, wink wink is applied.
Unfortunately, without the publication of the potential AAFs that did not result in an ADRV, there is no way to prove or disprove that statement. The rate of potential AAFs to ADRV could be 95%, or it could be 5%, or anything inbetween. We have no way to evaluate the likelihood of fire for any given instance of smoke.
I actually agree on this, transparency is the only way to clean up the sport. However that is a case for a rule change, not for leaking against an individual or team, small or large, and particularly not when there is a history of animosity between that team and the UCI and a large subset of cycling fans.
It hurts the team, because the public can't (or won't) distinguish between an AAF and an ADRV, and it hurts the sport because the UCI appears (rightly or wrongly) to be acting in bad faith.
It's about time they fired a salvo back at the UCI, supporters and the ASO.
Since the news of Froome's adverse analytical finding the french press, ex riders and public have been nothing short of abusive towards Froome and Sky in general.
Admittedly its only a few of the supporters so it would be wrong to lump them all together, but neither the UCI nor the ASO have had the balls to stand upto these so called supporters.
As someone pointed out above had it been during the tour of yorkshire or the tour of britain then the organisers / public etc would be lambasted by the UCI.
is it though? Have you actually listened to the constant booing, retty much incessaently every time a SKY rider passes and the microphones are in earshot of them. It's a significantly large % of cycling 'fans' at the side of the road and it's a constant throughout, every day without fail.
This is all brought about because of the leak and those in charge, the abuse should be laid directly at the door of the ASO/UCI as well as the failure to curtail it never mind actually out the person that leaked it. or maybe it was a deliberate attempt by them to get Froome and or SKY as a whole to be thrown out?
Whichever way you look at it brailsford isn't wrong about this and I love France and have met loads of lovely people there, it's just that they'll turn on you in an instant and are very nationalistic, far more so than in the UK and hold a grudge more than we do on the whole IMHO.
A BtBS classic - start out reasonable and end up with a bit of casual racism. IMHO.
So a french white guy is the same race as a french black guy? Today on road.cc I've learnt that french is a race. Amazing.
My mother is scottish so I must be mixed race!
FFS, he said nationalistic not racist. They're not the same thing. Stop throwing around acusations of racism, especially where there is obviosuly none. It's watering down the word so much it's just about lost all meaning and impact.
Yes, you're right. Aplogise unreservedly for 'casual racism'.
Still that line of argument is pretty poor: 'I like those french but they're shit, not as good as us'. It's the 'some of my best friends are feminists but' thing. What's the right word for that?
After living 30 years in France, I've seen Lappartient's type before - a politician first and foremost rather than having any deep love of cycling. After watching the almost daily drip-drip of French media criticism of Froome and Sky over the past months, even though I'm no great Sky fan, I have to agree with Dave B. In any sport, the French media are so desperate for a French win that objectivity usually goes out of the window, particularly in cycling. One of the few commentators on TV who stays pretty objective is Thomas Voeckler; on a recent FR2 after-Tour programme he called Marc Madiot out for always being negative without any particular substance, concerning Sky.
And the French media, especially their sporting papers haven't stirred any anti Sky rhetoric?
You can't suggest the American, English or Spanish have been reading that as none of us can be arsed to learn French...
Happy to be corrected, but didn't all of Froome's private records on salbutomal become public the day after this Frenchman took the reigns at the UCI? Just asking... And where was the UCI when the badger was setting fire to the oil, never mind just topping it up...
I'd have to look that up, but are you suggesting his records should have remained private?
I don't know either way about the specific dates, but the UCI deals with AAF's in private until a decision on provisional suspension or " if the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal finds that the rider has committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation.".
Source: http://www.uci.ch/pressreleases/clarifications-from-the-uci-concerning-a...
So yes, they should remain private for everyone, not just Chris Froome, per UCI's existing process, until wrongdoing is pretty much proven, rather than make personal medical details public for every investigation, no matter the strength of the case.
The only reasonable conclusion the leak was deliberately and maliciously targeted to hurt Team Sky and Chris Froome, because where there's smoke, there's always fire, right?
It does seem to be handbags at dawn between Dave and David.
If only we had an organisation to run cycling profesionally and look after the interests of those taking part.
“We must respect all the spectators, the people who come are people who love cycling."
I think those spectators need to respect the riders first and foremost.
It's all very well saying it's not just the french who are spectating but the environment of toxic spectating is being allowed in France. You can't have no law and then say "well the french aren't the only ones doing it"
I bet the UCI would be straight down on the TDY organisers if some British hooligans took down riders or were acting incorrectly.