Rowe plays down altercation with anti-Sky fan
Welshman admits he snatched 'go home' banne🎃r after initially denying it





168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Luke Rowe (Team Sky) and has sought to brush a run-in with a 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France spectator under the carpet, insisting the incident was "no big deal" despite denying it atও the time.
At the start of stage 5 in Lorient on🔯 Wednesday morning, the Team Sky rider approached a fan who was holding a banner r🐼eading 'Sky – go home', and snatched it from him.
"The rider came over quickly, grabbed my placard and threw it down," said Didier Bregardes, according to reports from the Press Association and Velonews, explaining that he was protesting against the British team's handling of Chris Froome's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:salbutamol case.
According to the reports, Ro🌜we was q♉uickly asked about the incident but denied it. "No, I don't know what you mean," he said. "It wasn't me."
Later that afternoon, afte💜r the finish of the s💛tage in Quimper, Rowe emerged from the Sky bus to admit that he had in fact taken the banner.
"There was a guy outside the bus, and he had a sign saying 'Sky - go home'. When I came out of the bus to sign on, I kind of rode past 💛him and he was shaking it around," Rowe explained.
"He was actually stood next to tw𒈔o kids wearing Sky t-shirts. He was kind of laughing, I was laughing, and I grabbed it."
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Despite initia🌜lly denying it, Rowe was keen to play down any sugg🔴estion that tempers had flared.
"I think it was kind of tongue in♐ cheek. Afterwards, I went over and gave the kids two bottles. It was all a bit of light-hearted fun," he said.
"He seemed like quite a light-hearted guy, when I started riding over towards him he🐼 start꧋ed laughing. I think it's was quite light-hearted, and it was no big deal."
The reception for Team Sky from the French public has been one of the big story lines of the start of the 2018 Tour de France. Chris Froome was cleared in his salbutamol case five days before the start of the race, but the boos and whistles that greeted hꦿim at the teams presentation and have persisted – albeit at a lower level – show that the French public is sღtill far from convinced.
The team have 📖called on parent company BskyB for security advice and their bus is patrolled each morn🎉ing and afternoon by a burly French bodyguard.
"The main concern didn't come f😼rom the team; we know there might be the odd person on the side of the road who's not the b🌌iggest fan. That's sport, right? Man City play Chelsea and half the stadium hates you," said Rowe.
"The cycling fans, in general, are not like that. Even if a cycling fan isn't the biggest fan of Chris Froome and Team Sky, I don't think we have to be in a position where we have to be scared or worried, because that's not the cycling culture, and it's never really boiled over to that extent in the past so I don't see why it shoulꦐd now."
Asked if he'd be grabbing any more banners, Rowe closed the matter on a light-hearte𝔍d note.
"🧸I ꦡthink that's my one banner done for the Tour now."
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s 🅠an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor&rs🍬quo;s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.