Chris Froome and Team Sky have been booed at the Tour de France. Is the salbutamol case behind this? You’d have to go and ask those doing it what their motivations are but Sky have got plenty of boos in previous years too. Hostility from the sections of the crowd goes right back to the earliest editions of the race. Over the years Gino Bartali almost got lynched in the Pyrenees and Jacques Anquetil even named a boat after the jeering crowds who didn’t like him winning.
A few incidents might still shock but the wonder is why an event that passes 12 million people with barely a barrier, tape or fence between athletes and spectators doesn’t see more trouble.
